Privatization Of Parking Feeds City Coffers

23 July 2007 - 12:00pm

By leasing some of its publicly-owned parking facilities to private developers, the city of Minneapolis is taking a large chunk out of its debt and creating a new stream of tax revenue.

"Minneapolis will shed eight of the 24 parking ramps it operates under the $88.2 million deal."

"The sale allows the city to retire about one-third of the debt on its parking facilities, and strengthen its cash flow on the remaining ramps, according to projections. The privately held ramps would generate an estimated $3.4 million in property taxes annually."

"More property taxes would come from the development that two of the buyers are required to generate at three of the ramps, paying penalties if they don't. The required development at the Downtown East, St. Anthony and Seven Corners ramps totals almost $33 million."

Source: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, July 20, 2007
Bookmark and Share
The following list shows the top 10 metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where commuting by public transportation has grown the most. None of them are among the nation's top 10 most populous metro areas, and yet seven are within the top 20.