A week after the Downtown Development Review Board approved changes Dec. 13 to a parking garage proposed for Laura and Forsyth streets, the city issued a permit for its construction.
The city granted a permit Friday for Danis Builders LLC to construct the $17 million, seven-level garage at 28 W. Forsyth St.
SouthEast Development Group is partnering with The Molasky Group of Companies to build the 807-space parking garage to service the Barnett Building, the Laura Street Trio and VyStar Credit Union employees relocating to the SunTrust Tower, to be renamed VyStar Tower, in 2019.
The DDRB approved the garage in May, but the development group said increased demand for parking required changes.
The garage now will comprise 286,047 square feet of unenclosed space. It added one level and 122 more parking spaces than in the original plan.
The project includes almost 7,900 square feet of retail space that will front Laura Street. No retail tenants have been named.
BLT Parking LLC, a subsidiary of The Molasky Group, applied for a city permit to build the garage. It is expected to break ground in 2019.
Dasher Hurst Architects is the architect. Art Barthlow with Codes-ABC Inc. provided private building plan review for code compliance before the plans were approved by the city.
The additional parking will help to accommodate employees of VyStar Credit Union, which bought the 23-story SunTrust Tower at 76 S. Laura St. along with an adjacent 612-space parking garage.
VyStar President and CEO Brian Wolfburg said the credit union plans to bring about 900 employees Downtown in 2019 and needed additional parking.
"We have recently come to an agreement on a long-term lease of over 400 spaces within that garage," he said previously.