(The Center Square) – The Chicago City Council could soon approve an agreement to allow the sale of the city’s parking meters between private entities, with the city now being folded in on a share of the parking system’s profits.
A coalition of Chicago aldermen announced this week a tentative deal had been reached to approve the $2.53 billion sale of the city’s privately-owned parking infrastructure between Chicago Parking Meters LLC and New York-based investment firm Stonepeak.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose office made its own bid on the meters, said he was grateful to have the council, his office and the other parties work together to create an agreement.
“I’ve always believed that there was a pathway forward to get a better deal,” Johnson said Tuesday. “ I am certainly grateful and feeling hopeful that the work that was done to put together a package, a better deal for taxpayers, that the City Council will find a path to deliver for the people of Chicago.”
A full vote is still required to approve the sale, as the parking infrastructure will revert back to city ownership 75 years after it was sold for $1.15 billion to assist the city’s finances in 2008.
The negotiated terms would include a one-time $75 million fee paid to the city by Stonepeak, and give the city a 5% share of annual profits – an estimated total $451 million over the remaining contract’s life directed to city pension funds.
A vote on the sale was delayed in July after disagreements over the company’s practices, investments and uncertainty over if the city could get more favorable terms, risking litigation against the city.
The taxpayer cost of true-up payments, required to be paid by the city anytime a parking space is taken out of service due to things like road closures or construction, between 2009-2024 was $161 million, according to a report by the council’s Office of Financial Analysis.
More than a dozen progressive aldermen took issue with one of the company’s investments, Omni Air, which had contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for deportation flights.
Under the agreement, Stonepeak would agree to sell the asset. James Wyper, a senior managing director at the firm, said it found no evidence of wrongdoing by OmniAir, but noted it was already attempting to sell OmniAir.
He also said he personally found some DHS actions “abhorrent.”
“We have discovered no evidence of wrongdoing or treatment outside the guidelines, which certainly does not include that sort of thing,” Wyper said. “The activities of ICE under the current administration could not be more abhorrent. I have direct family who is a Latin American, asylum seeking immigrant in this country whose parents cannot come visit. I could not be more empathetic.”
The council’s finance committee could vote to advance the proposal as early as Monday, when it would then be sent to the council for a final vote Sept. 23.
