Going Downtown? Park for Free

Parking is often something that keeps people from heading into downtown Tampa. Hillsborough County wants to ease that pain a bit.

The County Center Public Parking Garage located at 319 N. Pierce St., in downtown Tampa, is offering the first hour of parking free of charge. In addition, payment can now be made with credit and debit cards.

The County Center Public Parking Garage opens at 7 a.m. for daily parking. Drivers will take a ticket as they enter the garage at the Jackson Street gate, and pay by credit, debit or cash as they leave. Parking in this garage is FREE for the first hour, and costs just 80 cents per half hour after that. There is no maximum allotted time for parking.

“We’ve made these changes to offer greater convenience to residents coming downtown to receive services at County Center,” said Mike Merrill, county administrator. “This is one of the many efforts Hillsborough County is making to improve the way we do business and better serve our residents.”

The County Center Public Parking Garage will accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit and debit cards. Debit cards will be processed as credit transactions.

For directions from Westchase to the Pierce St. parking garage, go to this link: http://g.co/maps/tw3ku