FAIRHOPE, Ala. — It can be hard to find a parking space in downtown Fairhope, but that could get easier once the city’s new parking deck is completed.

“We’re shooting for Dec. 31,” said John Pate of JF Pate and Associates Contractors Inc, the general contractor on the project. “I don’t think we’re going to make it, but we might.”

When finished, the Fairhope Parking Deck will have cost approximately $2.5 million and have 249 parking spaces, Pate said.

“That’s (fewer spaces) than what it was going to be because (the city) wanted to make them wider,” Pate said Thursday during a tour of the project, adding that the original plan called for 258 spaces.

On Wednesday, Pate’s company poured the remaining concrete for the slab that automobiles will use to drive up into the deck from the north side of the Church Street entrance.

“That was about 200 cubic yards,” Pate said of the concrete poured on that one portion. He said it took about 978 cubic yards for the entire slab, which consists of six sloping levels with three entrances, two from Church Street and one from Section Street.

The south side of the Church Street entrance will go below ground and not connect to the rest of the deck. Like the rest of the levels, the lane in the middle of that below-ground level is 24-feet wide with straight-in parking on each side. The parking spaces are 18 feet deep and 9- to 9-1/2-feet wide, with the minimum clearance at each of the entrances at 7 feet 4 inches tall, he said.

“Upon completion, (the parking deck) will be donated to the Parking Authority or to the city,” said Bill Baldwin, chairman of the city’s Parking Authority.

Baldwin said all parking in the deck will be free of charge and will be managed by the city. He said the public will park on the below ground level and on other levels but no decision has been reached yet how the 89 spaces reserved for Hampton Inn customers will be identified. He said the hotel would probably not be full most of the time, and the city and hotel management were trying to determine how to accommodate both city and hotel parking needs. Hotel guests will park on the upper levels, he said.

“You will be able to get from the (below-) ground floor up on the elevator to other floors,” he said, referring to the elevator that located between the hotel and parking deck.

The developer of the Hampton Inn, Fairhope Hospitality Group LLC, signed an agreement with the Parking Authority on Nov. 15, 2007, outlining the duties of the two parties. That agreement required the developer to pay for the construction of the parking deck and donate it to the city upon completion, reserving 89 spaces for the hotel, with the city required to manage and maintain the facility upon completion, Baldwin said.

JF Pate and Associates is also the general contractor for the hotel.

“We’re shooting for Mardi Gras to finish the hotel,” Pate said, adding that he was not optimistic about finishing the $8.5 million project by that date.

On Wednesday morning, Pate, Charlie Bassett for Fairhope Hospitality Group, and Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler met to discuss plans for landscaping the parking deck property.

Pate said Thursday he understood as of that meeting that the city would be doing the landscaping, adding that he would be planting six 14-foot bald cypress trees on the north side of the decks as an agreement with the city for removing a number of trees during construction. He had not heard of any change in plans for the city doing landscaping but Fidler said Wednesday afternoon the city would not be doing it.

“The mayor told me we are not doing the landscaping,” Fidler said. “I don’t know who is going to be doing it. We’re going to be doing some brick sidewalk in front (of the hotel) for them, but they will be supplying the materials. We will supply the labor for that.”

During the Thursday tour of the parking deck, Pate said that signs had been ordered for the deck, and all major construction had been finished.

“We got the layout of the parking spaces this week, and we will probably be painting the lines next week,” he said.

Pate said the project had been delayed when the building permit was not received when expected and by heavy rains this summer and fall.

When the agreement between the developer and the city was signed in November 2007, Bassett said both the hotel and parking deck would be completed by November 2008.

Neither Bassett nor Kant returned phone calls seeking comment for this story.

“Even if we don’t make it by (Dec. 31), we’ll at least be mostly done and our (construction crew) can park in there,” Pate said. “That’ll free up some spaces on the street.”