THUNDER BAY – Months after the issue was first raised, Thunder Bay's city council will vote on whether to put its two municipally-owned parkades up for sale on Monday.
The proposal is likely to face opposition around the council table – a vote in February to seek a report on the possibility squeaked through by a 7-6 margin.
It’s also drawn skepticism from city staff, and opposition from the Thunder Bay Parking Authority.
However, Coun. Aldo Ruberto, who has pushed for the sale, points to years of financial losses and underutilization in arguing it’s past time to get rid of the assets.
He said they could be more successfully managed in the private sector, where he believes there will be interest.
“I’m very optimistic there’s people out there [who’d be interested], because a couple of them have called me after I said, let’s sell the parkades,” he said. “It has made money in the past – when it’s full, it makes good money.”
Ruberto argued there’s little downside to putting the facilities on the market, saying there is plenty of surface and on-street parking available in both downtowns.
“There are tons of parking lots around here that are empty,” he said of the Victoriaville area.
He also suggested they were likely to stay parkades if sold, given the cost of modifying or knocking down the structures.
Reports from city administration have speculated it will be difficult to find eager buyers, warning “market interest to purchase the parkades is expected to be limited due to the current gap between costs and revenues.”
In 2019, the most recent year not impacted by COVID-19, the two structures had a combined operating and capital deficit of $281,500. Over 94 per cent of those losses were from the Victoriaville location.
The city intends to explore the potential to bring in new revenue at the Victoriaville parkade by renting space to companies like car rental agencies or secure storage operators, it indicated in its report to council.
Coun. Brian Hamilton sits on the board of the Thunder Bay Parking Authority, an arms-length city agency that manages the parkades, as well as on-street parking. He concedes the parkades need to trim their losses - and have already begun by stretching out capital maintenance and gradually increasing costs - but said it’s not clear they’ve outlived their usefulness to the city.
He believes developments like the north core streetscape redesign, opening of Goods and Co. Market in the former Eaton’s building, and Victoriaville demolition could help revitalize both downtowns, leading to greater use of the parkades.
The north core streetscape project will also result in less on-street parking, though the city has said the reductions will not be dramatic overall.
“There’s a lot of growth potential in the south core, and certainly growth that we’re seeing here in the north core,” he said. “So it’s true the parkades are generally under-utilized, they have been for a long time, but things are changing rapidly.”
He also said he’s heard from businesses who value the structures.
Hamilton will move to defer a vote on the sale of the parkades on Monday, he said, to allow council time to evaluate those impacts before moving forward.
If the motion passes, the city would proceed to issue a request for expression of interest. Further steps would include property appraisal, a declaration of the property as surplus by council, negotiation of a purchase agreement, and final authorization by council.
While Ruberto argued there’s no harm in gauging interest from the private sector, Hamilton said the process would task administration with a lot of “unnecessary work.”
The appraisal process would cost an estimated $30,000, according to the city, while other steps like developing the request for expressions of interest could require “considerable staff time,” according to administration.
City staff also warned the sale of the Victoriaville Parkade could be “complex” because the McKellar Mall is located beneath it, containing some city offices, and due to an agreement with Synergy North for solar panels on the roof of the structure.
