Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993                   TAG: 9310220225
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DOWNTOWN JOB PROVIDERS COULD GET CUT-RATE PARKING

Just bring new jobs to downtown, and you can get up to 250 spaces for as low as $23 a month each.

That's less than half the going monthly rate of $55, or $60 for a reserved space in the garage.

The city is using reduced-price parking to try to lure jobs downtown.

"This is an incentive that will help attract jobs, help fill vacant spaces in the garage and produce some revenue for the city," said Brian Wishneff, chief of economic development for the city. "We've got excess capacity, and hopefully we can make use of that."

The city's other parking garages are either full or nearly full. The garages and their monthly rates are: Market Square and Century Station, $55; Williamson Road and Campbell Court, $45.

The tower garage has 727 spaces, but only 250 have been leased.

That's because the tower is not fully occupied, and the garage was designed to provide parking for a second office building near the tower.

"We included 200 to 300 spaces for a second building," said Wishneff. It's too early to say whether the building will be built, he said.

Another reason for the unused parking spaces: The garage also was designed to provide overflow parking for Hotel Roanoke and the Conference Center. They won't open until 1995.