Owner of Hamilton Garage in Cleveland declares it's 'absolutely safe' to park there despite construction concerns

CLEVELAND — Construction inside a downtown Cleveland parking garage is causing concern for some drivers.

Right now, the third floor of the Hamilton Garage — at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and East 13th Street — has a massive hole on the third floor, with huge slabs of concrete and metal falling through to the floor below. There are cones, tape, and barriers blocking off construction areas, but some are wondering if the floor is unstable and could collapse, or if someone could get hit by debris.

Inside the elevator, a sign posted by the E.V. Bishoff Company, which owns the garage, reads, "Attention all Hamilton Garage parkers. For your own safety and the safety of others please do not move barricades and park in restricted areas. These areas are where the new construction is currently underway. Failure to comply could result in termination from parking in the garage."

Another sign in the elevator reads, "Phase 2 of construction will start Wednesday, January 4 with concrete replacement beginning in various locations throughout the garage."

On Tuesday, 3News spoke with E.V. Bishoff owner David Bishoff to ask him if it's safe for people to park in the garage at this time.

"It's absolutely safe to park there," he answered. "I park there, our employees park there."

Then he explained what crews are working on.

"Every winter, to improve the garage, we identify 20 or 30 sections we're going take out and replace with new concrete," he said. "The construction area is clearly marked. We put up caution tape, barriers, and cones to make people aware and keep them aware. Nothing has fallen; we are removing and replacing anew. Cleveland winters are hard on garages. It's a never ending job as it relates to the ownership of garages, especially in Cleveland."

WKYC also spoke with the owner of the concrete company doing the actual work. He came to us wanting to explain the project, but asked to remain anonymous. We asked him if the garage is safe to park in.

"Yes, we close off the areas below where any falling debris is all the way down to the ground level," he told us. "We've had cars in here the entire time we've been doing work and no issues. When we are doing the demolition, we tape everything off back farther. We do have to allow traffic through somewhat, but we are always monitoring people to make sure if demo's going on and someone needs on the elevator, they stop hammering or whatever they're doing to allow people access."

The contractor also stressed that the garage is structurally sound.

"We're here restoring the building, fixing the damaged floors so that the community can continue to enjoy the affordable parking here," he said. "There's no catastrophic failure. This is simple floor replacement in a parking garage. The building has to be repaired. We're doing it safely."

3News reached out to the city of Cleveland about concerns over the garage. Spokesman Tyler Sinclair sent us the following statement, informing us that their Building and Housing team inspected the garage Tuesday:

"Today they conducted an inspection, met with contractors, and contacted the owner. Early indications suggest nothing collapsed on its own and that this was a controlled collapse with a valid permit; however, City inspectors did notice some concerns and took the following actions:

• instructed ownership to clear debris by Friday
• advised ownership to set up a proper construction fence around the area to prevent access rather than the cones/caution tape that are currently in place
• issued a violation notice today for hazardous conditions that still exist
• asked ownership to provide a copy of the structural engineer’s report of the entire building ASAP – they alleged they did but our records don’t show any such documentation.

"We will we continue to follow-up on this to ensure that these requests are completed."

Sinclair also informed us that, including this latest one on Tuesday, the city has issued seven building and elevator violations to the garage owner, ranging in date from April 29, 2019, to Feb. 6, 2024. He also shared that there was one complaint filed on July 16, 2021, and that "the City addressed this immediately by assigning an inspector the next business day and a violation notice was issued the day after that."

Lastly, Sinclair noted that it's "important to point out that just last night the Justin M. Bibb Administration's Residents First legislation passed and is effective as of today. This is important and significant as it requires parking garage owners to conduct critical inspections every 5 years to ensure the structural integrity of their building(s) are safe."

Bishoff says work on the Hamilton Garage is a multi-year project, and once work on the third floor is complete, they will move onto another section. The contractor told us the third floor should be good for parking by summer's end.