Public Works Director Mike Bartels says it's 46 years old, while the useful life for structures like this is 35 to 40 years. And it would cost too much to fix.
"Do we need to spend 5.2 million dollars to rehabilitate the garage and still have to have that required maintenance every year, knowing that at some point it's going to get to that useful life. Or do we look at starting over and investing about 2.1 million dollars into demolishing the parking garage and putting in a surface lot."
A surface parking lot would have a useful life of up to 50 years.
Bartels say three years ago a consultant rated the condition "fair to poor." But any possible decisions were postponed while city leaders waited to find out whether a new federal building would be built nearby.
The garage has 558 parking spaces, and the proposed surface lot will have 238.
A contract for demolition could be let by July.