Fredericksburg's parking garage will open tomorrow afternoon.

Date published: 11/2/2005

Visitors to downtown Fredericksburg tomorrow will have nearly 300 more places to park.

The $5.8 million parking deck at Sophia and Wolfe streets will open after a noon ceremony, nearly one year after crews from Donley's contracting started work on the structure.

Assistant City Manager Beverly Cameron said it will probably be 2 p.m. before the first cars are let into the deck, which is made to look like an old brick warehouse.

City Council members set the parking rates last month.

Parking will be free for the first two hours. Three hours in the deck will cost $3, and each additional hour will cost $1. Customers can pay with cash or credit card.

After the garage has been open for a few weeks, Cameron said city officials will start marketing monthly passes, which will go for $60.

Forty-eight spaces in the garage will be reserved for employees in the Executive Plaza. City officials have told developers interested in building a hotel downtown that they could lease up to 80 spots to a hotel.

The garage will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At noon on Thursday, city officials will gather at the garage to celebrate the completion of one of the biggest additions to the city skyline in a long time.

--Emily Battle

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Date published: 11/2/2005