Chicago City Council members announced a potentially sweeping deal to get hundreds of millions of dollars back from the company attempting to purchase the city’s parking meters.
It’s the first significant clawback since the city sold the meters away in 2008 in what is now considered one of the worst municipal deals in the city’s history.
“We are getting something nobody thought we could get which is a renegotiated contract,” said 11th Ward Alderwoman Nicole Lee, who helped negotiate the deal with a company called Stonepeak, which has been attempting to purchase the meters from a consortium led by Morgan Stanley.
In the potentially renegotiated contract, Stonepeak would agree to a one-time $75 million fee to the city plus 5% of all yearly profits going forward. With the one-time fee, City officials estimate the total to come out to around $451 million over the 50-plus years remaining on the contract.
“We were really focused on how are we going to benefit the people of Chicago from something that was really the case study in what not to do,” Lee said.
In 2008, Chicago City Council voted to approve then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s plan to sell the meters for $1.15 billion for 75 years to a group of investors. Audits from accounting firm KPMG show in 2024, the parking meters generated $160.9 million in income for the private company Chicago Parking Meters, LLC. That surpasses the previous record set in 2023 of $150.9 million. The income has increased every year since 2020.
Mayor after mayor have tried to rip the deal apart, acknowledging it was a bad one for taxpayers.
Sitting Mayor Johnson even offered to buy the meters back for more than $3 billion earlier this year. Today, he stopped short of endorsing it, but applauded alders for getting something done.
“Others attempted before I arrived on the fifth floor but were unable to come up with a coalition to find a better deal for the taxpayers,” Johnson said. “Some people didn’t believe that was possible. I always was hopeful.”
The deal also calls for electric vehicle charging stations at some parking spots.
As part of the agreement the company, Stonepeak agrees to part ways with an affiliate company called Omni, which contracted with the Department of Homeland Security to deport undocumented immigrants. Progressive alders cited that connection as a reason they couldn’t vote for the original deal.
A full city council vote on the proposal has not yet been scheduled.
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