The company that wants to buy the lease on Chicago’s parking meters is coming to town next week to speak with the City Council to address their concerns.
Stonepeak Investments said it is “looking forward” to the meeting, which is scheduled for June 15th in front of the Finance Committee.
Almost two decades after a disastrous deal that traded the city’s on-street parking rights for a $1.15 billion-dollar, one-time payment, the current lease owners are putting their rights up for sale. Area residents have watched as rates skyrocketed from $3 an hour to more than $7 per hour over the life of the deal, leaving lawmakers wary of any changes with the deal.
Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi announced last summer they were open to bids on the Chicago parking concession.
Stonepeak, which describes itself as an infrastructure and real asset investment firm, expressed its interest. Under provisions of the lease deal, the City Council is allowed to review the process.
Last week, in a letter to the mayor’s office, 22 council members announced they will be voting “no” on the deal. Whether anything the Council or the Mayor do at this point will have any impact on what you pay is uncertain, but there is opposition in the community to the change.
“I am voting no because it was a bad deal then and a bad deal now.” said 36th Ward Alderman Gilbert Villagas, who was not around to vote on the original deal brokered by then-mayor Richard M. Daley.
The City Council members who signed the letter also accused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration of withholding vital information about the transfer from the council. The mayor’s office denies withholding any information.
“We want to go through the deal. We want to see what concessions can be extracted if any,” said Ald. Raymond Lopez of the 15th Ward.“We want to make sure the mayor understand that we are not just some functionary rubber stamp for this to go through.”
Johnson’s office said in a statement that it connected council members with Stonepeak so they could engage with the company about the transaction.
Since the original agreement was signed in 2008, a succession of Chicago mayors has tried without success to break the deal or alter its terms. In some neighborhoods, the price to park on the street has risen more than 500%. Worse still, there are another 57 years left on the deal.
Earlier this year, Chicago considered buying back the rights, but the deal which is reportedly valued at over three billion dollars was considered too expensive.
Still, Alders are hoping the City can derive some benefit from what has been up to now an ironclad contract.
“To me, it’s important that we don’t see more rate hikes that we work out better terms, especially in times when Chicagoans are hurting,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez of the 25th Ward.
In a statement, Stonepeak said it’s excited about the opportunity to expand its investments in Chicago. It goes on to say the company “sees on-street parking as a critical component of the city’s evolving transportation network, and believes it will remain an essential part of its infrastructure for decades to come.”
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