Hillman Garage Closing for Rebuild

By Kathy Knotts

Prepare for potential parking headaches this spring in downtown Annapolis. The aging Noah Hillman Garage, which is approaching 50 years old, will be torn down in late March 2022 to make way for a new, better garage with more spaces, more lighting, green tech, bike racks and greater ADA accessibility.

In the meantime, residents and visitors to the city’s downtown area should be prepared to spend a little more energy seeking out convenient parking.

In a release, the city states that “project managers have carefully planned the teardown and rebuild of the garage to be as minimally disruptive as possible.”

A new website (AccessAnnapolis.com) aims to help residents and visitors navigate the area during the 14-month rebuild project. The website will serve as a hub for parking and transit information.

 “We all need to support local businesses during the rebuilding process,” said Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley. “We know that when it is complete, the new garage will be an amazing asset with more parking, better environmental controls and features, easier payments, better lighting, and more safety features. This will be a garage that takes our city into the future.” 

The garage was determined to be at the end of its service life as early as 2013 and engineers tagged the structure as a candidate for demolition and replacement in 2017. In March 2019, the city and Historic Annapolis worked together to convene the City Dock Action Committee (CDAC) to craft a resilient path forward for downtown Annapolis and the downtown waterfront. CDAC determined that the Hillman garage concession, through a Public-Private Partnership, could be leveraged to offset some of the costs for the reimagining of City Dock. 

Monday night, the Annapolis City Council voted unanimously to approve moving forward with the PPP concession, despite public testimony from individuals and organizations requesting more time to review the proposal. Money that the city would have received in parking revenue will instead go to Annapolis Mobility and Resilience Partners in exchange for a lump payment of about $25 million, plus an annual payment to augment the city’s parking fund. The concession will be used to help finance the redevelopment of City Dock.

The city says it has prioritized planning to protect residential parking in downtown and to move people around the city through the creation of a temporary mobility plan. New options include reduced rates at other garages, increased electric trolley and shuttle services.

There will be no changes for Ward One permit holders. The AMRP team is transitioning paid, on-street parking for non-residents to paid parking through the ParkMobile app and ensuring availability through enhanced parking enforcement in downtown. 

Without Hillman, there remain more than 3,400 lot and garage spaces available in downtown. The city is offering reduced rates for parking at the Park Place garage (750 spaces) for the duration of the rebuild. Those who hold monthly parking passes at Hillman will be transferred to Gotts Court or Knighton garages (contact Annapolisparking.com to transfer monthly passes). 

The Annapolis Circulator route will be enhanced with upgraded buses that will traverse the usual downtown route with increased frequency. For those who park at Gotts (540 spaces) and Whitmore (278 spaces) garages, an electric trolley will make a close-in loop to State Circle, Dock Street and Main Street. There will also be an option from the city’s microstransit vendor, Via, which will offer on-demand services to and from fixed locations through their proprietary smartphone app.

In addition, there are 4,000 additional parking spaces at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium. Annapolis Transit operates the State Shuttle between the stadium and the Maryland State House buildings. The fare for a one-way trip is $2. Downtown parking options will continue to include Dock Street, on-street metered locations, and close-in surface lots including Basil, Donner, South Street and Larkin. 

“The process for reaching a consensus on the design and rebuild of Hillman has been a multi-year project with hundreds of stakeholders and elected officials having input through many public meetings,” said City Manager David Jarrell. “Getting to the start of construction is a huge achievement and I thank the public, City staff and our City Council. We also appreciate the great work that has been done by our developer partner, Annapolis Mobility and Resilience Partners and their strong team. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through the inevitable issues associated with this important project. The new garage will be a tremendous improvement for downtown Annapolis.” 

Once completed, the new Hillman garage, built on the existing footprint, will include more total parking spaces (increasing from 425 current spaces to 590 spaces in the new garage); working elevators; easier entry, exit and payments; smart technologies like wayfinding and parking space detectors; stormwater controls; solar arrays on the roof (providing shade for cars while generating energy); electric vehicle charging stations; bicycle parking; improved lighting, safety and security features; multi-purpose areas on the ground floor; and more.