The newly constructed Walnut Street Garage is now officially open to the public. About 50 people spilled onto Walnut Street outside the entrance late Thursday afternoon, Nov. 20, to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

As part of the city’s designated “Walnut Week,” multiple events feature the local organizations moving into the garage’s first-floor retail spaces. Tuesday the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation gave out 100 repaired bikes to local families, as part of their annual holiday bike giveaway. Wednesday Oasis Community Center offered a yoga and strength fusion class at the garage along with tea and massages. Friday features a fundraiser for C.A.T. at McCarthy’s Red Stag Pub & Whiskey Bar, an event for Oasis at Steak & Steel Hibachi, and The Tavern pop-up in the Sun Inn courtyard as part of the Christmas City Village. The garage will offer four hours of free parking throughout the weekend.

The current project took 20 months in all and finished ahead of schedule. Approximately $27 million was spent to demolish the 500-foot former garage and reconstruct the current one. Mayor William Reynolds characterized the old garage, built in the late 1970s, as “a mistake,” part of a generational wave of massive concrete redevelopment in downtown Bethlehem. “This project represents a different way of thinking about Bethlehem’s CAT and Oasis are going to bring more people downtown,” the Mayor emphasized. The Bethlehem Parking Authority’s Executive Director Steve Fernstrom thanked the contractors who’d worked on the project, the trades workers who actually did the labor, as well as the city for its collaboration.

The grand opening was just in time for holiday shopping along Main Street.