City council Monday night awarded contracts for its parking garage.

Thomas Construction of Grove City was named the general contractor for the project. The company’s $3.975 million bid was originally the second lowest offer, but it was selected after Uhl Construction of Allison Park withdrew its bid last month.

The city last week authorized the sale of a $6.8 million bond issue through PNC Bank to pay for the structure as well as to refinance the parking authority’s debt and pay for the West New Castle Street bridge project.

The move came after developer J.S. Capitol and the city redevelopment authority finalized deals on the neighboring Marriott Springhill Suites hotel, the second main piece of the Centre City project.

The city Monday also awarded contracts for plumbing and electrical work on the garage.

Finalizing the deals marks the end of a long process for council.

Councilwoman Kathy Kline said last week after the city sold the bonds that the process to get to that point was difficult, especially when it seemed things weren’t moving as fast as officials hoped.

“A lot of times it was very frustrating,” she said. “But nothing ever moves fast in government.”

The city had to redo its bond rating three times for the bank. The project was delayed as the city worked to figure out ways to finance the garage and as it waited for the hotel developer to finalize that project.

Mayor Tom Donaldson said many special meetings held during the year didn’t yield results.

“It was frustrating how many times we had to talk about the same things,” he said.

Donaldson said the public-private partnership of the Centre City project made everything more complicated.

Councilman Richard Schontz said there were times he questioned the future of the project.

“I think at times there was some concern,” he said. “But mayor and council have been committed to the project from the start. Everyone worked very hard to keep pushing forward.”