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Fifty vehicles are still stuck inside a downtown Baltimore parking garage Monday after the garage’s second-floor ramp partially collapsed Friday and blocked the entrance with concrete debris.
The cause of the collapse is still under investigation. When, and how, the vehicles will be removed from the condemned Inner Harbor garage at 1 E. Pratt St. is unknown.
The 45-year-old garage is owned by Banyan Street Capital, a real estate company based in Miami, which said via its PR firm Monday that it plans to remove the vehicles “as soon as the structure is deemed safe by The City of Baltimore.”
The company contacted a demolition crew to start shoring up the garage’s deck — the first step toward vehicle removal.
Baltimore City structural engineers oversaw the temporary shoring up of the three-story garage immediately after the collapse. Jason Hessler, the Department of Housing and Community Development’s deputy commissioner for permits and litigation, said the garage will have to be stabilized before motorists can retrieve personal belongings. They will not be allowed to drive their vehicles out of the garage.
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Until then, no one is allowed inside the garage except for engineers evaluating the property or construction workers stabilizing the garage.
“Debris removal, shoring, and further evaluation will be needed before there can be a determination on how and when vehicles can be removed,” Hessler said in a statement.
The right lane of South Charles Street will be closed indefinitely between West Conway and Pratt streets while the garage undergoes repairs.
No one was injured when a section of a concrete ramp crashed to the ground level around 10 a.m. Friday. A driver had just entered the garage minutes before and witnessed its collapse. No vehicles were damaged.
Baltimore City Fire Assistant Chief Dante Stewart said Friday that most of the garage remains stable and is not expected to collapse again. The fire department last inspected the garage in July 2017 and determined it met the city’s fire code.
The garage is managed by SP Plus Corp., a Chicago-based parking facility management company, which directed questions to Banyan Street Capital.
“Most importantly, we are relieved that no one was injured and no vehicles were damaged,” said Jill Nagel, a spokesperson for SP+.