A largely empty, five-story parking structure on South King Street just makai of the Alapai Street police station should soon be filling up and earning some cash for the city.

The city reached an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration in September to allow city employees who don’t have transit-related jobs to park at the location at least until the entire $100 million Joint Traffic Management Center is completed in late summer or early fall of 2016.

Mike Formby, the city transportation services director, said an agreement has been reached with government union officials about who will get first priority for about 299 parking stalls there beginning Jan. 16.

"Hopefully, we’ll fill it up," he said.

That isn’t anticipated to be a problem since many city employees who work at either Honolulu Hale or the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building, which both sit on a mall that’s known as the Honolulu Civic Center, now pay to park at the Neal Blaisdell Centerparking lot about half a mile away.

Those who have been on the waiting list to park at the civic center longest will get first crack, Formby said.

The flower-lined, five-story parking structure has become a symbol of government waste and efficiency since opening in May 2012 because of a federal stipulation that only transit-related employees be allowed to park there, and primarily those who will work at the soon-to-be-constructed state-city traffic center.

As a result, the vehicles of only about 40 employees at a time from the Honolulu Police Department’s Communications Division, who work at HPD’s headquarters next door, have been allowed to park in unreserved stalls at the structure at about $60 a month.

The city was able to persuade the Federal Transit Administration to ease up on the restriction in September.

"FTA gave us a liberal interpretation of the rule, basically saying that they’ve always supported consistent incidental uses," Formby said Tuesday. "And as long as they are city employees, and the money goes to the bus fund, FTA has approved it."

One hundred and one stalls would remain reserved for transit-related employees.

When the traffic center opens in 2016, the city will need to reassess how many stalls can be freed for non-transit employees, he said.

The traffic center portion is expected to cost about $50 million, and about $22.8 million is expected to come from federal funding, Formby said. Construction is expected to begin sometime next summer.

City officials say regardless of who parks there, the lot will generate about $240,000 in yearly revenues, enough to pay for the annual operations of a 40-foot bus running 12 hours a day.