That could well be. I thought there might be because unsubsidized garage parking for the office buildings I worked at was $150, while there did seem to be some slightly cheaper options that you would have to hunt for [[there was one across from the Y that actually advertised $80/mo. Of course, this could have been daytime only. The lots always quoted me $100, but upped it to $150 when they realized I was living downtown and just looking to park the damn thing somewhere, day and night, due to the lost revenue from ballgames and whatnot. I never conducted a complete scientific survey, of course, but based on this limited personal experience of mine, I just assumed that there was a shortage of garage parking, of which the use of surface lots [[in general, not a specific one here or there) was symptomatic. If there is currently a surplus, then in principle it would be possible to start incentivising the use of a parking garage over a surface lot, aside from very important technicalities of how this incentive is structured in order to comply with legal requirements and such. It would also be beneficial if the parkers did not have to pay more for parking, but this is not enforceable, of course.
Sorry, gotta run and catch my plane. But does that make sense? Downtown would be much improved if it had fewer surface lots.