Windsor businesses tour Detroit's Z Parking Garage for inspiration

Members ofDowntown Windsor BIA pulled into Detroit's Z Parking Garage Wednesday looking for inspiration.

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The structure zigzagging through the centre of the city's Central Business District is filled with dozens of murals, retail and even an art exhibit. As DWBIApresident Larry Horwitzwalked through the towering building he pointed out the differences between the mixed-use property and Windsor's Pelissier Street parking garage.

"Have you been in the parking garages in Windsor? Have you been in this parking garage? It's like day and night," he said."They're dingy. They're rotten. They're disgusting. People don't want to have retail shops in those garages."

The Z garage is 10 floors with almost 1,300 parking spaces. The property is privately owned by billionaire Dan Gilbert and maintained by a group of 50 people who care for other sites managedby a company called Bedrock Detroit.

Parking there isn't cheap during the week it costs $3 for every 20 minutes.

Trendy restaurants like Punch Bowl Social and Vicente's are located inside the parking structure with a new hair salon about to join the block. Horwitz thinks Windsor can learn something from the design.

"It's a way of rebuilding your downtown core," he explained. "It's a way of combining the historical with the beauty of contemporary and it's a way of reviving your economy."

Dorian Moore, a Detroit-area architect and instructor with the school of creative arts at the University of Windsor, joined Horwitzon the tour that started in The Belt, an alley running between two parking structures.

The alley is a different world compared to Windsor's dark, narrow paths between buildings that have recently sparked complaints from residents about used needles and crime, but that doesn't mean Windsor can't adopt some of Detroit's winning strategies, said Moore.

"The whole idea of what's happening this alley is something I think could happen behind the Pelissier parking garage and connect into Maiden Lane," he said."I think downtown Windsor needs something that's a little funkier, a little different, as part of building up the image of Windsor and showing that Windsor is evolving."

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The architect said revamping the structure could make downtown safer too.

"When you clean up a space you get more people using it," he explained. "The more eyes on the street that you have the safer a place is going to be."

Before any of that can happen, Horwitzsaid the city will need to reverse its decision to take retail out of the Pelissiergarage, get onboard with some downtown cleanup and lower costs for people to do business in the core right now, he said administration is doing the opposite.