Tennessee Tech moving forward with design plans to construct a new parking garage that will add more than 800 spaces to the interior of the campus.
Senior Vice President for Planning and Finance Claire Stinson said the university is currently in the process of selecting a designer for the facility. Stinson said the project is expected to open in the fall of 2028 and will be located on the site of the current tennis courts.
“Students like to have interior parking,” Stinson said. “They like to have a parking garage. They don’t like to pay for it. So that’s, you know, kind of what we found out, but in addition to that one of their concerns was that the parking garage would take up surface parking.”
Stinson said the garage will represent a net increase in parking because it is not being built on an existing surface lot. Stinson said while parking is available on the west side of Willow, the new structure will provide students with more options in the center of campus, when it is constructed in the area of the current tennis courts.
Stinson said the university decided to relocate the existing tennis courts to make room for the garage since that area currently has no parking. Stinson said the project is part of a broader effort to make the interior of the campus more pedestrian-friendly by reducing the conflict between vehicles and students.
“You know, I think the big thing is the construction just, it, even though it’s inconvenient as we talked about a few minutes ago, it is a, indication of Tennessee Tech as a growing institution,” Stinson said. “Very vibrant, uh, we’re looking, we look at programs all the time. It, it is just moving the university into the future.”
“Parking garages are about $47,000 a space,” Stinson said. “They’re expensive. But you know, that’s the only way to get parking on the interior of the campus.”
Stinson said the project will be bond-financed because the state does not provide funding for parking, which is considered an auxiliary activity. Stinson said the campus access fee for students will increase gradually over a three-year period to help service the debt on the facility.
“Primarily student parking,” Stinson said, “There will be, you know, a small amount of parking in that facility for employees that, you know, that want to park in there, but it’ll be primarily focused on students.”
Stinson said the design phase for the garage is expected to take approximately six months, followed by roughly one year of construction.
