Should Nyack build a parking garage? It is unclear if there is a shortage of parking.  There is no lack of opinions on the issue, and there was a parking study that surveyed occupancies.  The report concluded that there currently was no shortage of parking, although there are some that dispute those conclusions. 

 There are a lot of issues in building a parking garage, but one thing for sure is that it is a long, expensive process.  On average, a nicely designed garage will cost about $20,000 per space.  So for a smaller garage, about 400 spaces, that is $8 million.  A more substantial garage would well over $10 million.  That is a lot of money for a small village with 6,700 residents. 

The main problem that I see is that the Village does not have any professional staff with the expertise to manage a project of that scale.  Before the Village can dream of large projects to revitalize the local economy, it needs the capacity to manage the project.  To put it in perspective, a private developer would make something in the order of $1.5 million dollars for a project of that scale.  That is a lot of money, and it is a tremendous amount of work and risk, and a developer can only make that kind of money if he or she has a proven track record that they can pull off projects of that scale. 

The Village needs somebody with experience in economic development.  Then we can think about doing it……

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