A Depot District intersection and the city’s downtown parking garage will receive more than a million dollars’ worth of improvements paid by tax increment financing revenue.
The Richmond Redevelopment Commission approved 5-0 funding for both projects during its June 16 meeting. It committed $791,400 from its Johns Manville TIF allocation area to the intersection and $270,600 from its downtown TIF allocation area to the parking garage. The commission collects the increased property taxes paid by developments within allocation areas to use for projects that benefit the allocation area.
Where Fort Wayne Avenue, North D Street and North Seventh Street all intersect will be connected to the Cardinal Greenway at its North Third Street trailhead with an extension of the city’s Loop multi-modal trail system, said Jack Stocks, senior engineer and project manager for Clark Dietz. The intersection will also receive new traffic lights, crosswalks and Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps.
Stocks said the traffic lights will become more modern rather than the current fixture that spans the intersection from its southeast corner to the northwest corner. He said lane closures would be necessary during the project, but there would not be any full closures.
Matthew Keller, the city’s director of public operations and engineering, said that LWC Inc. identified 30 needed parking garage projects in 2020, but lack of funding has left them unfinished. The TIF money will fix a structural problem above the Rose View Transit bus terminal’s bathrooms, the bathrooms themselves, rusted and ill-fitted doors and the elevators.
The bathrooms are closed to the public because of the problems and vandalism, Keller said. The structural work is expected to cost $158,400, with the other bathroom work estimated at $72,600. That leaves $39,600 for the doors and elevators.
Each elevator was found with three infractions during an annual inspection earlier this year. The final fix is to tie in the elevators to smoke alarms so they’re called to the ground floor in event of a fire.
A version of this article appeared in the June 24 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
