UM to Issue Bids for Wall St. Parking

In the latest step toward building a new parking structure on Wall Street, University of Michigan regents authorized staff to issue bids for the $34 million project and award construction contracts. The action came at the board’s Dec. 13, 2012 meeting.

In July of 2012, regents had approved a schematic design for the six-story, 720-space parking structure on Wall Street, near the Kellogg Eye Center and the UM medical campus. The overall project had been authorized in April 2012. [schematic of structure – view from Maiden Lane] [aerial schematic of proposed landscaping] [.pdf of map showing location of proposed structure]

The project, to be built where current surface parking lots are located, is expected to be finished by the spring of 2014 and provide an average of 79 construction jobs, according to a staff memo. The structure will add a net of 530 additional parking spaces to UM’s system.

The structure is moving ahead following UM’s withdraw in February from the Fuller Road Station, a joint project with the city of Ann Arbor that would have included a large parking garage.

This report was filed from the Michigan Union’s Anderson room on UM’s central campus, where the regents held their December meeting.