WHEELING — The long awaited opening of the new Market Street Parking Garage is expected to take place in the coming week.

Work on the building’s construction had been ongoing for more than two years in the heart of downtown Wheeling, and the new six-deck parking facility was recently completed. Despite construction work being finished in the building that was otherwise ready for use, its opening was delayed simply because of timing with the West Virginia Division of Highway’s $35 million Downtown Streetscape Project.

Crews from the WVDOH contractor on the Streetscape, Triton Construction of St. Albans, W.Va., happened to be demolishing sidewalks along Market Street next to the new building at the same time crews from the city’s contractor, Carl Walker Construction of Pittsburgh, were putting the finishing touches on the new Market Street Parking Garage. City officials noted back in early September that inspectors had determined that the construction of the new garage had been substantially completed, with only some punch list items remaining.

However, the Streetscape crews worked quickly to tear out the old sidewalks and construct the new sidewalks, planters and curbs over the course of the past couple of weeks.

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the new parking facility will be officially opened on Tuesday. This will be somewhat of a soft opening with plans for a ceremonial ribbon cutting to follow in the coming days.

The city manager noted that the main pedestrian access to the building near the elevators of the parking garage had been under construction when the building was finished. Officials opted to allow Triton crews to complete the sidewalks before subjecting the construction zone to additional vehicular and pedestrian traffic in that area.

Work on the Market Street Parking Garage had been underway for the past few years. Ground was officially broken on the project back in April of 2022. Carl Walker Construction was awarded a $12.3 million contract for the construction.

Prior to construction, the Regional Economic Development Partnership (RED) acquired the former Chase Bank building that stood near the corner of Market and 11th streets. Raze International of Shadyside was hired to demolish the old Chase Bank building to make room for the new parking structure, which occupies multiple parcels of property along Market Street. The demolition work needed to clear the property cost $475,000.

The new parking structure will be fully automated and comes with four electric vehicle or EV charging stations. Officials noted that the structure has a total of about 300 parking spaces. In September, 115 of them were already set to be leased.

On the ground level of the facility, nearly 10,000 square feet of retail space is available for future tenants. The city previously hired a firm to market the space for potential businesses, and officials indicated now that the new sidewalks are installed along the street-facing available storefronts, the effort to find tenants for the retail spaces will pick up.