COLLINGSWOOD, N.J. (CBS) - Officials and businesses in Collingswood (Camden County) are celebrating the opening of a new parking garage.

Collingswood officials today drove a 1948 Chrysler “Town and Country” convertible through a blue-ribboned entrance into a new parking garage that has been five years in the making.

Mayor Jim Maley (right) says more towns should have this problem.

“There’s so many people coming into the downtown,” he said.  “This is giving us 100 public parking spaces in the heart of the downtown.”

The garage, which offers metered parking, is located on what is now North Atlantic Avenue behind the Lumber Yard condominums.  It includes the first new street in Collingswood in decades, Powell Lane, where  Linda Kain has a boutique called Enigma Jewelry and Accessories.

In a word, she says, she’s “thrilled” — and she’s looking forward to what the new parking will bring.

“More business, more people coming through, more traffic, just everything positive and good.”

Reported by Karin Phillips, KYW Newsradio 1060