By Lookout Staff
October 2, 2025 -- Downtown Parking Structure 5 on 4th Street behind the Promenade near Broadway closed at 4 p.m. Wednesday for urgent repairs that could last one month.
The decision was made "to ensure public safety" following the advice from a commissioned Condition Assessment Report for the 56-year-old structure, City officials said.
"The City determined that the entire structure must close to vehicles while emergency repairs are completed," officials said in a statement Wednesday.
The City will install signage to notify the public of the closure, and staff will reprogram parking cards for access to alternate structures, officials said.
Monthly parking customers -- including Pali High students and staff –- will be able to use their parking cards in Parking Structure 6, at 1433 2nd Street, and Parking Structure 4, at 1321 2nd Street until Structure 5 reopens.
The GoSaMo Center that provides public counter services at the structure for Big Blue Bus and parking customer transactions, as well as administrative offices for the City’s parking operations contractor, are not impacted and will remain open to the public during the temporary closure.
Built in 1969, Parking Structure 5 did not originally have ground-level occupied space, according to City records. In the 1980s, the structure was retrofitted for multiple retail tenants to occupy the ground floor.
In 2017, the City rebuilt the occupied space at the ground floor "in order to satisfy new tenant requirements from the City’s Big Blue Bus (BBB) and Transit & Parking Services (TAPS), to provide enhanced public restroom amenities, and to improve the pedestrian experience."
A staff report at the time noted that the structure "could be shut down for as long as five days during the construction because it needs deck sealing on multiple levels."
The GoSaMo Center opened at the structure in April 2019, replacing the former Transit Store.
Members of the public or monthly parking customers who have questions about their parking options can contact parking@santamonica.gov.