Water Street Parking Garage

I never thought I'd be the kind of person to write a parking garage review, but after using this garage without any issues for years, I wanted to flag that this garage is now managed by a large company called Metropolis. Metropolis uses AI to recognize cars upon entry/exit. I have had a half dozen issues with Metropolis deleting my car from my account and they are not able to resolve it, so it's not as simple as "drive in, drive out" as indicated on the garage signage. Be forewarned!

I’ve never felt compelled to write a review on a parking garage before now, but sitting in my car for over an hour to leave will do that. One way in and out. Zero traffic on the streets surrounding. It is all because of the single gated exit. People are parking and pissing on the wall. If there was an emergency, forget about it- you’re dead. Do better Charlottesville. EDIT: We left the garage after almost 2 hours. By the time we got to the gate, I was charged more! In reading these other reviews, the extra charge is a known issue. The owner of the garage and the City allow this. They are making money.

Ridiculous back up and no way to contact anyone for support. This has been backed up for over two hours and cars can’t move and exit at all. This is as of 2 pm on 4/12/2025. The company needs to improve communication and needs to have someone on site to help. This is honestly like nothing I have seen and I have been in some wild parking garages before.

Whenever the middle land to get out is closed there is also nobody present to move things along. Should be illegal to waste everybody's time and charge for the convince of the parking lot. The same car has been in front of me for 10 mins now, looking at hours to get out.

Helpful staff when figuring out the ticket machine and helpful when leaving as well. Didn’t struggle to find space and it was cheap for being in Charlottesville. Use the actual garage vs the parking lot though as I was told someone paid $30 instead of the $11 we paid for multiple hours.