Akron Children's Hospital breaks ground on new parking deck

AKRON, Ohio - Akron Children's Hospital has broken ground on a new $20 million, six-level parking garage.

The garage, which will be located on the southwest corner of Exchange and Locust streets, will serve patient families, visitors and hospital staff with its 1,200 parking spaces.

There will also be room for an ambulance garage on the lower level.

"As our main campus has expanded, so has our need for parking spaces," said Linda Gentile, vice president for professional and support services at Akron Children's Hospital in a news release. "We have added programs, services and physicians and that has increased patient visits and traffic. Many of our patient families travel with babies, children, strollers and wheelchairs so we want them to get in and out of their appointments as quickly and easily as possible."

Currently, the hospital has two parking decks, one on Locust Street and another on Bowery Street, along with owning several surface lots for nurses, doctors and other hospital workers.

Construction on the new deck is scheduled to be completed by September 2013.