New parking deck dedicated

Businesspeople and Athens-Clarke officials gathered on the rooftop of the new downtown Athens parking deck Wednesday to dedicate it two weeks after its opening.

The deck, dubbed the West Washington Building, will provide much-needed parking space for 3,000 workers, shoppers and diners a day, said Erica Cascio, a restaurant owner and chairwoman of the Athens Downtown Development Authority.

"This deck, conceived a decade ago, ensures that Athens is poised for future growth," Cascio said.

The 540-space deck is the first public-private partnership in Athens. Batson-Cook, a private developer based in Atlanta, built the deck, chipped in $3.5 million of the $16.4 million cost and owns first-floor retail and seventh-floor office space. Other funding came from voter-approved sales taxes and bonds that will be paid off with parking fees.

Batson-Cook is leasing the ground floor to four restaurants - Waffle House, Momma Goldberg Deli, Fuzzy's Taco Shop and Yoforia - that are scheduled to open in November. Partner Software is occupying the office space at the top of the deck.

The roof also has a garden to capture storm runoff, one of several features that allowed it to gain environmentally-friendly LEED certification.

The new building exceeds expectations, said former Athens-Clarke Commissioner David Lynn, who pushed for the public-private partnership.

At 265,000 square feet, it's one of, if not the, biggest building downtown.

"You're not faced with a hulking building," Lynn said. "It really fits into downtown better than I expected."

Downtown business owners expect the deck to bring new customers to retailers, bars and restaurants on West Washington, West Clayton, North Lumpkin and North Hull streets, areas that have undergone a revitalization over the past decade.

Commissioner Alice Kinman said she parked in it recently while going to dinner with family at Last Resort.

"The fact that I could walk out and be right in the middle of things is nice," she said.

The deck is also the first government building to include public art as a result of a new law setting aside 1 percent of public-works budgets for art. The newly-formed Athens Cultural Affairs Commission chose designs by Heidi Hensley, Robert Clements, Jared Brown, Elizabeth Debban and Chet Thomas for banners and decorative metal panels.

"They took this project on soon after being appointed and did an awesome job of it," Mayor Nancy Denson said.

Check out more photos from the dedication.