by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Last month the City Council authorized an agreement with Metropolitan Parking Solutions to develop three parking garages downtown. At Tuesday night’s Council meeting, a resolution was introduced urging Mayor John Peyton to take another look at the deal before moving forward.
Offered by Council president Lad Daniels and Finance Committee chair Warren Alvarez, the bill called into question two proposed Sports Complex parking garages.
“Before we were ever going to let the original deal pass in the first place, we wanted to do our best to strengthen it and make it more attractive for the City, which I believe we were able to do,” said Daniels.
Through Council massaging, the price tag attached to the garage site parcels was inflated from $1 to nearly $6 million. Additionally, the City’s rate of return to the developer was reduced from 10 to 8 percent, though provisions were made for a 2 percent performance-based bonus.
“But even since then, Warren and I have still had our concerns,” said Daniels. “I was actually hoping we were going to send it back to committee so we could look at the proposal with more detail, maybe get a deeper understanding of what we were getting into.”
Daniels offered little resistance to the need for parking by the new Duval County Courthouse, but wasn’t easily convinced of a similar demand in the Sports Complex.
“I can’t really say,” he said. “If you really look at the utilization factor of the thing, can we really justify building anything down there right now? Maybe there are other ways to address the parking problems in the Sports Complex that we never even discussed while we were looking at it last time.”
Beyond concerns over whether the two parking garages would be properly marketed and utilized, Daniels said he was unsure if the City should be subsidizing management company SMG for two revenue generators; the garages and Veterans Memorial Arena.
That concern was voiced loudly by Council member Jerry Holland, who voted against the bill during discussions earlier this year.
“That’s what I was worried about all along and that’s why I never supported it,” he said. “We’re guaranteeing too much for something that may always be the last resort for parking.”
Holland said he would support the resolution, but would not “lead the charge.”
“I don’t know how much weight something like this will carry,” he said, “but I support efforts to reconsider this deal.”
If the resolution passes, Daniels said there may be room for the City to renegotiate with MPS and possibly eliminate one or both of the garages from the development plans.
“We just want to be completely sure these garages in the Sports Complex are absolutely and immediately necessary,” he said. “If not, let’s see what we can do.”
MPS principal Mark Rimmer circulated a memo Tuesday afternoon in the Council offices, making a pitch for all three garages.
“This issue has been addressed several times throughout the negotiations, beginning in January with our responses to questions presented by the Council Auditor’s Office,” he wrote. “As a principal of Metropolitan Parking Solutions I would like to try to bring some clarity to the discussion.”
Quelling fears of monetary shortfalls for the City, Rimmer maintained the arena would continue to generate more and larger events, and that Jacksonville Suns attendance would likely remain high.
“The forecasts that were presented for the new arena indicated an increase in overall revenues measured in the millions when compared to the old coliseum, and were based in part on there being an increased parking inventory in the immediate vicinity,” he said. “Even if only a portion on the estimates used in the feasibility analysis for the new arena and ballpark are reached, then the monetary impact should be no worse than break even.”
Rimmer later referenced various City-sponsored reports, including both the Downtown Master Plan and the Downtown Parking Task Force report, that contained recommendations validated the need for parking garages in the Sports Complex.
“Based on the language of the bill, the Council only wants the mayor to ask if these garages are necessary,” said Michael Munz, a spokesperson for MPS. “The information, the facts that are out there, will support that they are.”
The bill was not filed as an emergency and no action has been taken. It is expected to be further reviewed in the Council’s Finance and Recreation, Community Development & Education committees.