Unlike 35 years ago, when you could drive into downtown Greensboro and take your pick of parking spaces – largely because there wasn’t much reason to go downtown – these days it’s a completely different story. There’s a whole lot of action downtown, and, if it’s a busy time of the day or night, it can be virtually impossible to find convenient parking near your destination.

So those who frequent downtown will be glad to hear that the new February One Park Deck at 110 S. Davie St. is finally open and is accepting both hourly and monthly parkers.

The deck is at the corner of East Market Street and Davie Street, just across from the pile of rubble that was once the site of the News and Record building.

Yes, southerners hate parking decks, and yes, street-level parking is much, much better; but, given the parking situation downtown, drivers should be happy with whatever new parking they can get.

The new February One Park Deck adds 720 spaces to the city’s downtown off-street parking offerings.

And it has some modern amenities as well, such as electric vehicle charging stations and automated pay systems. It also features pay-on-foot stations meant to make transactions easier.

 The lot has entrances on East Market Street and on Davie Street – and at some point in the future, it will have an entrance on February One Place as well.

In recent months many parking spaces have been taken away by downtown construction projects and repair work such as the renovations that Guilford County has been doing to county-owned lots. That’s meant that some county employees have had to take up downtown parking spaces, making the problem worse.

The new Park Deck will support a new hotel, which is expected to begin construction later this year.

If you’d like to sign up for a monthly parking pass for the deck, you can either visit www.greensboro-nc.gov/parking or contact the parking office at 336-373-2648.