No easy answers to parking problems.

Parking and a short commute are among the top priorities for employees, even outranking the availability of good coffee.

A nationwide survey of 503 workers by Clutch Real Estate found that 70% of them drive alone in their cars to work, and 5% carpool. Of those surveyed, 49% said an office's proximity to their home is their top priority.

"People cared more about being close to home and having easy commutes than they do about being near other location perks such as restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, stores, all of that. We found that people really value their commutes," said Clutch senior content writer Kristen Herhold.

If your office is in downtown Columbia, parking can be a challenge for all those employees who drive to work.

A recent research and forecast report from Colliers International South Carolina determined that adding parking options in Columbia would increase economic growth and found that the lack of parking is a deterrent in attracting new office and retail tenants. The report concludes that the 2,039 garage parking spaces in downtown Columbia are not enough to encourage new development, but rents need to be higher to make it feasible to build new office spaces downtown that include parking.

Downtown Columbia is defined in the study as the area between Assembly and Bull streets from Calhoun to Green streets.

"The underlying problem that you've got is that our rent structures, primarily our office rents, don't support the construction of a new tower with parking," said Ron Anderson, Colliers vice president of research.

The vacancy rate for parking garages in the central business district in Columbia is 16.14%, allowing parking facility owners to charge rates based on the demand. By comparison, in Charleston, the vacancy rate is approximately 20% during peak times, while Greenville has a parking vacancy rate of 11%.

Add to this the growth in the downtown area of residential space and ground-floor businesses such as restaurants and retail, and the competition for parking spots is fierce.

Of the 985 available surface parking spots downtown, 69 surface lot spaces are available to shoppers and diners, the Colliers study found.

"In a lot of downtown Columbia, you don't have to provide any parking. You can just build a tower," Anderson said. "But if you're a tenant and you're going to rent 10,000 feet and you're going to put 300 people in there, or whatever number, you're going to have to have sufficient parking for your staff. If...