The San Antonio City Council has approved the design and construction of a $10 million parking garage with 600 spaces to address parking problems at the San Antonio Zoo and Brackenridge Park
Brian Carter, vice president for marketing at the zoo, said expanded parking is expected to boost the number of visitors.
“We run out of parking here at the zoo on a busy Saturday by 11 or noon and so we need the additional parking,” he said. “We also see that is a perception that there is not enough parking in Brackenridge Park, so we don’t have any idea about how many guests we are losing.”
Guido Construction of San Antonio has been tapped for the job. Carter said construction should begin late this summer and be completed in the spring of 2019.
Zoo attendance records show around 1.2 million visitors a year, and Carter said the new parking garage should help alleviate much of the congestion.
“They’re parking all over now. They’re parking on streets. They’re parking in nearby areas and they are having to hike on some streets where there are no sidewalks, which is very unsafe for pedestrians that are coming into the park,” he said.
According to the zoo’s website, the zoo has 750 species of animals on 56 acres, with nearly 700 jobs supported by the zoo at an economic impact of $85 million annually. The zoo has been at Brackenridge Park since 1914 and started as a collection of animals owned by Colonel William Brackenridge.
Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at brian@tpr.org
