Free beach parking is a new perk for the public visiting Pompano Beach —at least until the end of August.
The city is hoping to introduce its new $20 million parking garage to beachgoers, city officials announced Wednesday.
Located at 275 Sea Breeze Way between State Road A1A and Pompano Beach Boulevard, the 669-space garage opened June 30 with much fanfare — even fireworks. It’s designed with unusual touches such as a giant fish mural and canvas sails.
But it’s not exactly filling up. The city began payments on the loan it took to build the garage last January.
July revenues for the new structure hit $14,000, said city spokeswoman Sandra King. She said city officials didn’t expect to see an influx of cars at the garage until the planned restaurants and retail come to the area.
“We knew it was going to to be a few years before we started bringing in a lot of money,” King said.
But officials have noticed that the garage has been sitting empty while surface parking, at $1.25 an hour near the beach, is full up. So Pompano officials hit on the idea of a free introduction to the garage.
“People are inclined to park on the surface parking, so we’re changing the behavior,” she said. “Once they go into the garage and realize it’s nice, cool and convenient, customers will begin to park there.”
, 561-243-6624, @AnneBoca
