After a long wait, the City of Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham announced earlier today the opening of the first level of the Water Street parking garage in downtown Binghamton. 

The first level provides roughly 40 parking spots for drivers to utilize for a maximum of three hours. The garage is planned to be utilized as parking for retail, such as restaurants and shopping, and not overnight. 

Crews are currently working on finishing the garage's upper levels and is expected to be complete early next year. 

"We are opening up this ground floor so people can utilize the short-term parking, whether they're going to buy scarves, going to many of our local restaurants. and this is a significant milestone in the construction and development of the Water Street parking garage," Kraham said. "We have the spaces that are here and available to provide a lot of turnover for parking in downtown Binghamton. And as I said, crews will continue to open up floor by floor the remaining floors of this parking garage over the next several weeks and months."