New York City’s Department of Transportation on Monday issued a request for statements of qualifications to operate its 81,000 street meters in a private management agreement.
Deadline for responses in 3 p.m. July 31. Companies must have experience operating at least 100,000 parking spaces, of which at least 20,000 are on-street spaces, and offer $100 million in collateral.
City officials emphasize they will structure an agreement differently than public-private partnerships in other cities, notably Chicago, where many residents say former Mayor Richard Daley’s 75-year P3 deal for parking meters sold taxpayers short in the long term, in exchange for a one-shot revenue deal that enabled the Windy City to cover deficits over three years with $1.15 billion.
New York last year it hired investment bank Greenhill & Co. to advise on a parking meter deal.
“In contrast to certain precedent U.S. parking transactions, the city’s objective is not to structure an upfront payment,” the city said in its proposal document. “Rather, the city views the possible PMA as an asset management partnership through which a private manager would earn compensation for driving long-term value and service to the public and creating parking system upside for the city.”
The RFQ added: “Any such arrangement would maintain the city’s control over meter rates, installation and removal of meters, operating hours of metered spaces, enforcement and adjudications.”
The city’s parking system consists of 80,800 on-street spaces and 8,700 off-street spaces, which includes nine garages with 3,700 stalls and 4,900 surface lot stalls in 33 parking fields.
