City garage back online, Destination Salem prepares for move

Aug. 17—SALEM — More than $2 million in repairs and upgrades at two of Salem's three downtown garages are wrapping up — and a new tourism visitor center is preparing to open next month — just in time for the city to start heading into its peak tourism season.

City crews are wrapping up work at the Witch City Mall Garage, a three-story structure connected to Witch City Mall, and the South Harbor Garage by Congress and Derby streets.

Both facilities are still getting some last-minute work, including the installation and activation of security systems, according to Dave Kucharsky, Salem's traffic and parking planner.

Over at the Witch City Mall garage, "the third level opened up a couple weeks ago," Kucharsky said. "We're looking to open the roof and ramp leading to the roof by the end of the month." At South Harbor Garage, public bathrooms are now open, and "both stairwells are completed and open to the public again."

The two projects were approved by the City Council in 2021, with $1.58 million targeting the Witch City Mall garage and $850,000 going into South Harbor Garage. The former project also came after a $1.1 million round of work to the first floor of the Witch City Mall garage in 2020 and $1.3 million on the garage's four stairwells in 2017.

Destination Salem's new Visitor Center is expected to open in the base of South Harbor Garage toward the end of September. The move will give the city's marketing arm a more permanent public presence, according to executive director Kate Fox.

The Visitor Center will work similarly to the information booth Destination Salem runs at the Essex and Washington streets intersection each fall, with one key difference, Fox said: Now, the volunteers will be paid part-time staff.

"In addition to our marketing mission, we're going to be providing visitor information and visitor services," Fox said. "There are so many people who live in Salem and are natural-born ambassadors for this great city. We're looking for people who want to spend their time helping visitors make the best of their experience in Salem."

Calling them "information specialists," Fox said the part-time jobs would be 20 to 25 hours a week with a greater need for staff on weekends. Further details, including hourly rate, weren't immediately available.

"It's going to be open seven days a week, year-round," Fox said. "Eventually, we're going to have some retail component. We're going to build it slowly — we have to get in there first — and we're going to make it great."

Over at the third garage downtown off Bridge Street, which is run by the MBTA, Kucharsky noted that parking there typically costs $5 on weekdays and $2 on weekends each fall season, but it's surprisingly slow to fill each year.

"What we're trying to do is improve signage promoting the MBTA garage," he said. "I don't know if people think they have to use the train to park there or don't know where it is, but we're working to put signage out in key locations in hopes that people will see it."

The city also plans to run shuttles, as in prior years, connecting downtown Salem to three locations south of downtown: the O'Keefe Center parking lot on Congress Street, Salem High School off Willson Street, and Salem Hospital parking off Jefferson Avenue.

"We're also trying to see if we can get agreements with businesses along Highland Avenue, just given the nature of how traffic builds up," Kucharsky said. "Having shuttles come in either through North Street or Bridge Street, they just kind of get clogged (in traffic), whereas coming from the south seems better.

"We're trying to focus on routes we knew had capacity to allow for shuttles to come in and out with some ease, so it makes it more appealing," he said. "The last thing someone wants is to sit on a bus for a while."

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.