IBJNews

  • Home

City seeking proposals to privatize parking operations

 IBJ Staff
February 11, 2010
Keywords
City Government, Government, Government & Economic Development, Government services
Back to TopCommentsE-mailPrint

Indianapolis leaders are officially seeking proposals from companies interested in running the city’s parking operations—and possibly additional spaces managed by other government entities.

As IBJ reported Jan. 15, Mayor Greg Ballard’s Office of Enterprise Development has been considering ways to revamp management of the city’s 15,000-plus spaces to generate additional revenue for street and sidewalk repairs. Officials have been weighing the possibility of privatizing at least some parking operations since summer.

The final deal is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the city. Multi-space meters that accept credit-card payments and a variable rate structure likely will be part of the deal.

The city’s formal request for qualifications, issued Wednesday, asks for proposals for overseeing all 3,500 metered parking spaces, two city parking garages, two state-owned parking garages and one surface lot, three downtown garages now managed by  Simon Property Group, planned surface and garage parking at the new Wishard Memorial Hospital, and three surface lots and one garage now operated by Marion County’s Capital Improvement Board.

“Teaming with the city and other government entities makes good sense,” CIB Chairwoman Ann Lathrop said in a prepared statement. “Instead of having multiple government entitles with multiple contracts, the city and state, along with the CIB can operate all parking under one contract, resulting in greater efficiencies, increased revenues and a more responsible use of taxpayer money.”

Parking meters already add more than $3 million per year to city coffers. One potential bidder told the city this summer that it could double or triple that—or generate a lump sum payment of at least $100 million through a long-term lease.

Responses to the city's request are due March 15.

Companies have until March 26 to respond to a separate request for information, also issued Wednesday, seeking ideas from companies interested in managing parking operations at Indianapolis International Airport. Currently, the Indianapolis Airport Authority handles parking management itself.
 


ADVERTISEMENT

Post a comment to this story

COMMENTS POLICY
We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or hateful.
 
You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.
 
Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in IBJ editorial content are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.
 
No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.
 
We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.
 

Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag a post simply because you disagree with it.

ADVANCED SEARCH
Sponsored by
ADVERTISEMENT

facebook - twitter on Facebook & Twitter

Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ on Facebook:
Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ's Tweets on these topics:
 
Subscribe to IBJ

  1. The lack of street-level retail in this part of the Block 400 development is a huge oversight and somewhat perplexing given the high quality of recent city-backed developments downtown. This portion of an otherwise stellar development is going to have an extremely negative impact on the aesthetics, urban environment, walkability, and livability of the NW quad.

    I'm not sure why One America would oppose including retail. And I find it very hard to believe that the thousands of office workers literally footsteps away wouldn't be able to support new lunchtime destinations and other businesses along Illinois and Vermont. We've got to reconnect the disjointed segments of our blossoming downtown, not create yet another lifeless dead zone that no one wants to walk through. Sadly, that is exactly what this massive ugly single-use structure will accomplish.

    Why not follow the precedent set by the proposed garage in Broad Ripple and create an attractive mixed-use structure? Why does the city get it there but not downtown?

  2. Bear mind that DS is just not another lazy, rich kid. He attended Columbia grad school and was in investment banking for 4 or 5 years before joining his dad's company. An annual grant of stock options at market price would be the correct pay-for-performance program then no one could argue with it.

  3. This comes from an executive who gave his wife a Bentley as a wedding present. He is heir to billions of dollars. He should be working for a dollar a year and stock options only. Seems like a conflict of interest, time to bring in a non-relative as CEO. Haven't met him, but have heard his arrogance is legendary.

  4. If the property is improved, property taxes increase - more revenue. If AUL's employment grows, more income taxes - more revenue. If more people move and/or work downtown, it means more demand for goods and services, more employment, more taxes - more revenue, etc., etc. It's not just the city throwing money at big companies. There's much, much more. Yes, the project has private backing, but apparently not enough to make the deal work and therefore they don't have it covered. And while Marsh is a nice anchor, they are no credit tenant like a Kroger or somebody. And if the police department has a major shortfall, they need to reduce the force. This city has way too many policemen.

  5. It's hard to defend billionaires, but David Simon has created a tremendous amount of value for shareholders since joining the company. He is widely regarded as one of the best CEOs in America. The company is growing and making good strategic decisions. And Indy is fortunate to have SPG HQ'd here. Now, does that merit $120 million (about 15 mil over 8 years or so)? Maybe. But this family and David have truly built a business. Should Zuckerberg be worth $20 bil? Who knows. Hopefully David will be supportive of Hoosier charities like his family has.

ADVERTISEMENT