Way back in March, we wrote about a planned 530-car parking garage at 1324-42 Arch St., right across the street from the newly expanded convention center. The developers, Realen Properties, were facing some understandable opposition from next-door neighbor Arch Street United Methodist Church, but Realen was apparently able to address their neighbor’s concerns. Last week, we were in that area and noticed trailers, heavy equipment, and a hole being dug for a foundation.

The hole

Church windows are covered

From the north

With the church windows boarded up for protection, the parking garage seems to finally be moving along. In our earlier post, we showed a rendering for the garage. We imagine that the specs have changed somewhat, but Realen isn’t sharing anything with us at the moment. Here’s another look at that rendering:

Probably outdated

In case you’re wondering about the retail spaces, we didn’t get any answers about those either. With progress coming at the parking garage site, we’re hopeful that this means the Realen’s planned hotel in the old Liberty Title Building at the corner of Broad and Arch Sts. is full speed ahead. Considering the time, money, and energy that’s gone into the Convention Center expansion, we’re looking forward to the completion of these two projects, at which time the 1300 block of Arch St. will be free of construction activity for the first time in almost a decade.

Future hotel. Convention Center in the background, Methodist church in the foreground.