Armand Gingras, an elderly man who delivered documents to the McLane Law Firm last week, asked for help in the Capital Commons garage. He didn't understand why the parking lot elevator didn't take him to the fifth floor of the Capitol Commons building, where he was trying to wheel a box of documents on a dolly. He finally gave up, heading to the north stairwell, dragging his dolly down a half-flight of steps to Main Street.

"It's confusing," he said of the garage late Thursday morning as he hurried to the office. "Especially on a day like today, when the wind is blowing."

The Capital Commons garage, a $13 million endeavor that brought 516 new parking spaces to downtown Concord, is hurting for attention, and some city officials fear it's because people find it confusing or inconvenient.

During the week, the lot sees about 300 cars a day at best. On the weekends, it's mostly used by small surges of moviegoers. It generates about $623 dollars a week in revenue at the metered spots, and about $1,037 per week for leased spaces.

City planners knew the garage wouldn't fill up right away. They originally designed a 300-car garage but added more spaces in anticipation of greater downtown development during the next 75 years, including a new library and court house.

City planners were prepared to lose money on the garage until at least 2014 or even until 2028, as revenue catches up to the building costs, said Matt Walsh, assistant for special projects.

But city officials didn't expect the garage to do so poorly in its first six months. It's expected to make only $160,000 by the end of the fiscal year in June, 34 percent of the total revenue the city anticipated the garage would eventually generate, Walsh said.

With the Capital Commons building filling up more slowly than anticipated (the building is about half full), the city is also bringing in less revenue than expected for leased spaces. They hoped to have 300 leased spaces, but so far have leased only 98.

"That's obviously hurting us," Walsh said.

More people are parking downtown; they just aren't parking in the garage. The city expected the Capital Commons garage project would lead to a $339,000 loss in the city's parking fund in this year's budget. But now the projected loss is $266,000, since the city is collecting more money than expected at metered spots or in other parking garages, Walsh said.

That led some to wonder if the problem is the garage's design, which left many people stuck at a closed gate when trying to leave the garage soon after its opening. The system requires parkers to take their tickets with them and validate them at machines located in the north and west stairwells of the garage. Even during hours when the garage is free, people must visit the pay machines to validate their tickets, which confused many parkers and left them stuck at the gate, pushing a buzzer to call either the parking manager or, on weekends and nights, Concord police dispatch.

Walsh fears that many who had problems early on now avoid the garage.

"You're stuck bringing all those people back," Walsh said. Chhorvy Ty, who works at Classic Upholstery, said she uses the garage every day, even though she got stuck there a few times.

"I have no problems now," she said, adding that she prefers to park in the garage rather than search for parking on the street.

Dorothy Morgan of Hillsboro, who works at Pachamama, right next to Capital Commons, said she uses the garage all the time, but it took her awhile to warm up to it.

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