I live in a small city (Alameda, CA) that has a couple of concentrated "downtown" areas with limited parking. The construction of a 6-story municipal parking garage as part of a large renovation of the old movie theater complex in 2008 was beneficial to all of the surrounding businesses. It seems like this is a pretty good general strategy, it just requires a large up-front investment by the city.

More details:

http://www.alamedatheatres.com/historic-theatre/

https://www.overaa.com/projects/alameda-historic-theatre-res...