DALLAS -- The escalators are still broken and there's shattered glass throughout, but the old Reunion Arena parking garage has partially reopened for employees of the city-owned Omni Hotel.
The City and the hotel reached an agreement to operate the fourth floor of the 37-year-old parking structure on a month-to-month basis in February.
The move comes after the City placed concrete barriers at all entrances last year after WFAA discovered dozens of vehicles parking in the garage that had multiple unresolved code violations.
At the time, the City of Dallas said no one should be parking in the abandoned garage for safety concerns.
The Omni Hotel tells WFAA it worked over the last year to address six areas to bring one floor up to code to allow for its employees to use the structure, even with the rest of the structure continuing to decay.
Officials with the Omni say access control gates have been added, along with repairs to all light fixtures. Physical barriers were added to prevent anyone from accessing other levels of the garage by vehicle.
District 14 Councilman Philip Kingston toured the garage with WFAA in February 2016 and said Monday he was surprised it was allowed to be put into use yet again.
“It’s hard for me to understand how some broom work, or whatever they did, got it up to code," Kingston said. "The City just needs to decide, when it comes to that garage, whether it wants to fix it or get it rid of it. And it needs to be one of those two.”