If you’ve tried to dine or do an errand at Eric Town Square in Glastonbury, you know it’s tough to find a parking spot.
And, it’s only become more difficult this week, now that some of the parking garage is closed.
For folks returning to work Monday morning, the entire parking lot was closed off. A posted note on the property from Glastonbury’s building inspector deemed the structure too unsafe to enter.
On Monday afternoon, some spots reopened, but still about 80 spots are blocked off. The garage is owned by ERICS1, LLC.
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Evan Schwartz, the property manager of the parking garage, tells NBC Connecticut a patron called in the structure complaint Saturday night.
Schwartz said because of the "very small crack in the upper portion of the garage,” as a safety precaution, it was closed.
This crack caused quite a scramble for customers Saturday night.
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"An officer came in and he told us that we had to tell all the customers around here to move their cars,” said Jaden Chen, whose family owns Sakura Garden.
Their diners had to take a break from eating their Japanese cuisine to move their cars,
Employees at this restaurant expect the current closure to impact businesses like theirs further because parking in this area is already a pain with the garage completely open.
“I see all the customers when they come in, they’re all complaining about parking, they’re like, ‘there’s no spots out there,'” Chen said.
“We come for dinner and the parking is always bad right here and we hate to go down below because it’s creepy,” said Julie Santella of Hebron.
She and a teacher friend were happy to find a spot to park for lunch, even though it was a bit of a walk from Plan B Burger.
“You have to circle around, circle around and then you’re parking like a half mile away,” said Jen Ojala of Coventry.
Schwartz said Tuesday a professional is coming to look at the garage and then he’ll have a better idea about a timeline for reopening. Meanwhile, make sure to plan in some extra time to find a parking spot.
We’ve reached out multiple times to the town manager, town council chairman and the building inspector for comment or any more information they could provide business owners, shoppers and diners in the area, but we haven’t heard back from anyone.
