The Houghton City Council discussed potential options for the city's parking garage on Shelden Avenue, including selling the property or undergiong a 10-year maintenance plan. Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette

HOUGHTON — After receiving a structural evaluation report, Houghton is considering what to do with the city parking garage near Subway on Shelden Avenue.

“There’s a lot of options out there right now, and I want to stick my finger in the wind right now and see where there may be some consensus,” City Manager Eric Waara said at Wednesday’s Houghton City Council meeting.

U.P. Engineers & Architects conducted a structural evaluation of the deck, which was built about 100 years ago. They presented the city with several options. If the city decided to keep the garage, 10-year maintenance costs would be about $2,004,000, with about $300,000 of that needed in the near future. The report identified several immediate needs, including wall veneer repairs, roof truss stabilization, and replacement of the roof coverings.

The $2 million leaves out future inflation in construction costs, Waara said. A conservative estimate would put the amount closer to $2.4 million, he said.

Two other options identified in the report. Demolishing and replacing the garage while expanding to the west would cost $3.2 million, creating another 24 parking spots. Demolishing and replacing the garage while expanding to the west and northwest would cost $4 million, adding 33 spots.

The building dates back to the 1920s, Waara said. It began as a Ford dealership; the showroom had been where Subway now stands. Upper Peninsula Power Co. later bought the building and renovated it in the 1960s and 1970s for use as a garage. In the late 1980s, Houghton took over the property for parking, adding the deck in the 1990s.

The engineers only peripherally mentioned the parking deck behind the garage, which was made with newer construction methods, Waara said.

“That’s been maintained a couple of times already and is actually in fairly good shape,” Waara said.

Between the garage and the attached parking deck, there are 48 parking spots. The council also discussed additional parking options in the city, such as contracting with the National Park Service for parking spots during Isle Royale National Park’s offseason.

Council members largely said they wanted the city to get out from the garage and seek a potential buyer. The site had been discussed as a redevelopment site in the downtown. In 2019, the city council and planning commission had named the property as one of two potential future sites for the city center.

“I think it’s time for us to really get serious about trying to see if we can find a developer that’s interested in that property that can serve the downtown and serve the better good versus us having this sinkhole of money,” Councilor Mike Needham said.

Needham endorsed the idea of remove-and-restore, along with making better use of existing parking. Councilor Virginia Cole agreed.

“Especially in the financial situation, we’re talking about developers finding themselves in situations where what they planned isn’t coming to fruition right now due to constraints of interest rates and contractors and things like that,” she said. “I really hate to see us get into a situation where we’ve decided to sell it to the developer, and then you’re sitting on something that needs desperate improvements.”

No action was taken at Wednesday’s meeting. However, councilors suggested quick action.

“I don’t want to have the same thing happen that happened with the (Lakeshore Drive) parking deck,” said Councilor Robert Megowen. “We talked about it for 20 years… we need to really think about a quick solution in the next six to nine months and chart a path.”

Mayor Brian Irizarry agreed, saying the garage was lower-profile than the Lakeshore deck.

“I’m not super-excited about spending a lot of money on something that I’m not sure is going to be needed or produce a lot of dividends back to the city,” he said.