Metro-North Railroad officials said construction soon will begin on a nearly $42 million parking garage project at the North White Plains commuter station that has been 10 years in planning.
Due to be completed in 20 months, the 500-car garage will accommodate the projected increased demand for parking at the station, which Metro-North officials said is used by more than 2,200 passengers each weekday.
The 186,000-square-foot, four-story structure will rise at the southeast corner of Bond Street and Haarlem Avenue and add about 400 spaces to the total parking supply at the station, a 29 percent increase. Metro-North officials said the existing 109-space garage will close next January and be demolished along with a maintenance building, small surface lot and several utility sheds.
The new garage will include bicycle and scooter parking spaces, administrative operations and storage space, a utility room for expanded and relocated utilities and a small retail space on Haarlem Avenue. It will house six electric charging stations.
Drivers will enter and exit the garage from Haarlem Avenue, which will become a two-way street from the garage entrance to Bond Street. A traffic light will be installed at the intersection of Bond and North Broadway.
Railroad officials said the project is funded entirely by a $41.8 million federal congestion mitigation and air quality grant. Prismatic Development Corp., of Fairfield, N.J., was awarded a $26.5 million design-build contract.
“Not everyone has the good fortune to live in a village within walking distance of one of our stations,” Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut said in a press release. “So parking is a necessity. Hopefully this project will attract even more people to mass transit.”
