Here’s some more on the long-term lease a company holds for 15 spots on Bay Street
I got a call from a reader angry about the parking situation downtown, and she specifically wasn’t happy about the city leasing parking to the owners of the Flatiron Building for parking along Bay Street.
It’s not fair that the general public can’t use the 15 parking spaces, which are public property, she said.
The city decades ago first signed a contract with the building owners to guarantee parking along the short section of Bay Street between Prospect and Champion streets (the spaces are across from the American Museum of Radio and Electricity). It was a piece of candy in the late 80s to keep the company from joining the ranks of many others and fleeing downtown.
The contract is a long-term lease of those parking spots, and the company pays full parking rates. They lease the spots from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays for their employees. The Flatiron Building is the triangle-shaped one that now housing the engineering company CH2M Hill.
The city extended the lease to last through August 2010. When the company leaves the space, which they plan to do soon to move to the waterfront, the lease expires.
Click here to see the latest update of the contract.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Whoa. That is a huge chunk of money for 15 parking spaces. Almost $32K if I did the math right.
( 75c/hr x 11 hrs/day x 22 days/mo x 12 mo/yr x 15 spaces)
For $32,000 they could buy 57 permits for the parkade @ $557 each. Walking a few blocks is a bit much to ask, I guess.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
The spaces were negotiated at the time the partners were permitting the renovation to the building. It wasn’t candy to keep them there.
Sad that not very many folks remember that at the time Christensen Engineering moved downtown from the Belllingham Business Park on Merdian, downtown was a ghost town. They leased 1 or 2 FULL FLOORS in the Parkade and the street parking.
The renovation of the Vans building and moving hundreds of jobs to downtown was a shot in the arm to our local economy and was a large part of what kept the city center alive. The thriving city center we have now is a far cry from the vacant and beaten core after the exodus to the mall.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
You are living in the past doug. right now there are businesses downtown that are committed to being there by owning the property they are in. they aren’t abandoning downtown and they don’t get to have the parking in front of them reserved for them and their employee of the month, this keeps all other downtown visitors out of using those spaces to go to other businesses.
just goes to show once again how fond the city is of the golden rule, he who has the gold rules.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I was going to reply to surf, but it seems they hadn’t really read the story or my reply.
Surf, no worries the building will be empty and the parking will return to public August 2010.
Be happy