Parking Garages Not For Sale

The state will fund nearly $11 million in urgent repairs for three downtown parking garages, but only if the city agrees not to sell those garages for a decade.

That state aid deal took one step closer to becoming a reality Monday night after the alders on the Finance Committee agreed to fast track it to the full board for a vote at next week’s meeting.

Doug Hausladen, the acting executive director of the New Haven Parking Authority, explained to the alders that in June and July 2018, the state agreed to bond $10.9 million to pay for immediate repairs to cracked concrete, outdated elevators, and insufficient lighting at the Crown Street Garage, the Temple Street Garage, and the Temple Medical Garage.

“The DECD has come forth with $10.9 million of identified needs that can be taken care of in the next three years with this money,” Hausladen said. ​“The item before you is to make sure that for the next 10 years, these garages will never be sold and they will remain public entities.”

Finance Committee alders did not vote on the proposed resolution on Monday night, thereby allowing the full board to take up the item for a vote by unanimous consent at next Tuesday’s meeting.

The parking authority built the three downtown garages in the 1960s and 1970s, according to an executive summary submitted to the Board of Alders by Hausladen, parking authority Chief Financial Officer Brian Seholm, and parking authority attorney Joe Rini.

“Over the years,” the summary reads, ​“renovations and improvements have been made to these facilities. However, as each facility is open to the elements and to public parking, from time to time the garages need significant non maintenance repairs and improvements.”

Hausladen said the authority has identified over $11 million in needed renovations and improvements at the three garages, and the authority will cover $514,200 of administrative and engineering expenses out of its own budget and use the roughly $10.9 million bonded by the state to pay for construction costs.

“This will take about two and a half years to complete the work,” Seholm said. ​“That is about as quickly as this amount of concrete work can be done.” He said the garages will remain open to use during the construction period.

In a letter of support written to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, city Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany reiterated that this state aid deal comes at no monetary cost to the city. All the city and the alders have to do, he wrote, is promise not to sell, lease, or transfer the garages away from public ownership over the next 10 years.

“The City is in agreement with the Parking Authority that the acceptance of this grant by the New Haven Parking Authority of the City of New Haven will be in the best interest of the City of New Haven,” he wrote, ​“and will serve as a key component of our joint commitment for the revitalization effort of the greater downtown New Haven area.”