This article has been updated.

The South College Parking Garage is now open and ready to serve the CSU community.

Located on the corner of Pitkin Street and College Avenue, the four-story building will increase parking on the east side of campus by 650 spaces.

Initially, only the bottom half of the garage was open. Now that the canopy rooftop is complete, the full building is in use. The roof is solar-panel ready, in line with the university’s sustainability goals, but these panels have not yet been installed.

Dave Bradford, the director of parking and transportation services at CSU, said he is excited see the building put to use.

“It’s a beautiful garage,” Bradford said. “We’re glad it’s open and we’re looking for more people to use it as they find out about it.”

Students will navigate through the garage by using a color-coded light system that allows drivers easy access to available spaces.

The light system could save time for students and staff heading to class and decrease the carbon emissions being released by drivers circling the garage.

There are six charging ports for electric vehicles, bringing the total on campus to 24. Bradford said he is confident these ports will be put to good use.

“I know there is at least one electric vehicle I see on campus regularly,” Bradford said. “In the Lake Street garage we have four stations that are used every day.”

Permits to park in this garage are available for purchase, and there also are pay-per-hour spots available. Drivers who use the pay-per-hour spaces can download Way-to-Park, an app connected to the garage that will allow them to pay quickly by card.

Dylan Schellsmidt, a senior at CSU studying construction management, has troubleshooted his parking problems differently every year.

“Freshman year I long-boarded around, sophomore year I road the bus, so I didn’t have to park,” Schellsmidt said. “Last year, I parked in the LSC (Lory Student Center) parking lot which was awful. (It was) hard to find a spot and super expensive.”

Bradford said the structure cost $16.5 million to build, which nets about $25,384 per space. The original project plan‘s budget was $37.5 million, but the number of planned spaces decreased from 1,555 to 650 during planning and construction.

Steven Osika, senior art major, has struggled to find parking spaces at CSU since his freshman year.

“Well, parking while living in the dorms didn’t really exist due to the amount of students,” Osaka said. “Parking near Parmelee or Corbett specifically was a nightmare everyday no matter what time it was.”

Collegian reporter Veronica Baas can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @vcbaas.