Half of the parking spaces in Northampton's 38-year-old E.J. Gare garage have been off-limits since March, and the business owners who depend on those spots say they are running out of patience. The structure attached to Thorne's Marketplace has what Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra calls concrete cancer, and merchants from Herrell's Ice Cream to R. Michelson Galleries say downtown cannot afford to lose any more parking.
A Diagnosis the City Can't Ignore
An assessment from Hoffmann Architects and Engineers, released by Northampton City Hall earlier this month, found that the garage's concrete has been damaged by an ongoing chemical reaction. As reported by the Gazette, the garage faces an alkali-silica reaction that is deteriorating its concrete, along with spalling and other forms of significant structural damage. The firm's recommendation was blunt: demolish the garage rather than attempt temporary repairs.
Sciarra described the diagnosis to Western Mass News in plainer terms, saying it has what is colloquially called concrete cancer, according to Western Mass News. The city closed the garage's top two levels and a stairwell in March, cutting available parking from 430 spaces to 220. Since then, the city has spent roughly $9,000 a month just to shore up the structure and keep what remains open safe for drivers.
Merchants Say They Can't Absorb Another Hit
For the business owners who line Main Street and the surrounding blocks, the math is simple and unforgiving. Bruce McAmis, an owner at Provisions, said downtown's loss of parking could be potentially devastating and noted that Main Street has faced headwinds for years, according to MassLive.
Judy Herrell, president of Herrell's Ice Cream and Bakery, told the outlet that the garage and surface parking were full during Smith College Family Weekend, which ran from October 23 through October 25. She said businesses need the parking and that few can absorb a loss, pointing out that fuel and ingredients have already become more expensive — she blamed the trade war and the Iran conflict for driving up chocolate, sugar and milk prices.
Richard Michelson, who has owned R. Michelson Galleries since 1979, said he does not want his gallery isolated by empty buildings. The gallery sells high-end art, including original works by Mo Willems and Maurice Sendak, has featured Leonard Nimoy's photography, and attracts collectors from around the country and the world, all of whom need somewhere to park when they visit.
The Price Tags on the Table
City officials are weighing a range of costly options, none of them cheap. A comprehensive repair of the entire garage is estimated at $7 million to $10 million, though Hoffmann Architects does not recommend that route. A more limited repair targeting the lower floors, where damage is less severe, would run $2.5 million to $3 million and would still require future maintenance, per the Gazette's reporting.
Demolishing the garage and replacing it outright is estimated to cost between $18 million and $33 million, the Gazette reports, while Western Mass News has cited a figure of up to $30 million to rebuild it. A cheaper alternative — tearing down the garage and building a 110-space surface lot in its place — carries an estimated price tag of $3.3 million to $3.8 million. City officials have estimated that $10 million in new debt would add 15 cents to the tax rate, while a $24 million expense would add 35 cents, or roughly $206 to the average homeowner's tax bill.
Revenue Is Already Slipping
The partial closure is also costing the city money it was counting on. The garage brought in $196,871 between January and September this year, putting it on pace for between $248,000 and $284,000 for the full year — well below the $449,000 it generated in 2025, $469,000 in 2024 and $404,000 in 2023, according to a separate Gazette report. The city's finance director said Northampton will likely miss its fiscal 2027 parking-revenue projection as a result.
The garage typically fills up only during large downtown events or winter storms, the same reporting notes, and the city is working to patch the gap elsewhere. Officials are pursuing agreements that could add 70 public spaces at 33 Hawley Street and 20 temporary spaces near the former Saint Mary's Church site, while also relocating 20 employee parking permits from a city lot to free up more space for shoppers.
Picture Main Street Adds Pressure
The garage's troubles are colliding with Northampton's plans for Picture Main Street, a multimillion-dollar reconstruction project the city intends to put out to bid in summer 2027. Some downtown businesspeople are calling for the Main Street work to be delayed or altered until the parking deck issue is resolved, per MassLive's reporting, though the first phase of construction is located away from the garage's immediate neighborhood.
City Councilor Meg Robbins has flagged the garage's importance to that future construction timeline, telling Western Mass News that where people will park when Main Street is being worked on is tied directly to this building. Sciarra, for her part, said convenient parking affects whether people decide to visit downtown at all, and that businesses are worried. She added that her first priority is safety, and that whatever capacity remains in the garage must be safe and available to the public.
Holiday Shopping Season Workarounds
With the holidays approaching, the city is rolling out stopgap measures to keep shoppers coming downtown despite the reduced garage capacity. Northampton plans to try a shuttle to farther-away parking on Bag Day, November 21, and will offer free parking on Bag Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Sciarra said the moves are meant to make holiday-season parking convenient and to encourage local shopping and dining.
Northampton currently counts roughly 1,600 parking spaces downtown across on-street spots and lots, a cushion officials are leaning on while the garage's fate remains undecided. For now, merchants like Herrell and Michelson are left watching the clock, hoping the city settles on a fix before another holiday season — or another Family Weekend — tests just how much parking downtown can really spare.
