With the announcement and subsequent building of the Pinnacle Bank Arena (PBA), private development of Phase I construction moved far more quickly than any of the planners envisioned. Because of the rapid pace of new construction, which included hotels, retail, restaurants, offices, multi-family housing and events at the PBA, the West Haymarket Joint Public Agency (JPA) had to confront an urgent need for more parking much sooner than anyone anticipated.

Phase I construction included an attached VIP parking garage to the PBA and Parking Deck 1, both of which were meant to serve the immediate needs for event parking. Both of those garages were designed and built using precast/prestressed concrete. For Phase II, the decision was easy for the owners to once again dictate that the two new parking garages (Decks 2 & 3) be constructed using high quality precast/prestressed concrete products. The owners appreciated the great value precast/prestressed concrete afforded them in terms of economics, aesthetics, maintenance and speed of construction. Extra value was realized as JPA decided to build both garages under one contract. Deck 3 also achieved further economy by using the same “core” design as Deck 1 while only changing the exterior look.

Deck 2 features 700 parking stalls and Deck 3 provides 950 stalls. The two garages were built incorporating over 1,700 pieces of precast/prestressed concrete. During construction, both decks faced the reality of a brutal Nebraska winter but because precast was used, the weather did not delay the erection of either deck. The aesthetics of the garages included integral thin-brick, multiple integral colors and varying relief changes on their facades. In a unique sign of the times, both decks also incorporated dedicated parking stalls with chargers for electric vehicles.

The architect and engineer on the project was Davis Design, Inc., with dual contractors on site of Hausmann and Dunn. Concrete Industries, a NEBCO, Inc. company of Lincoln, Nebraska supplied precast for the project.  U-MIX Products supplied grout and mortar on the project.