04
May
2004
A sign in the parking office of the City of Davenport reads, "Parking Should Be a Non-Event." That's certainly the dream in Davenport, but currently it's far from being a reality.
Right now the city's parking system is getting pressure from two sides. Two ramps - at 101 Main Street (454 spaces) and 202 Harrison Street (621 spaces) - that opened last year and cost $14.5 million have performed below projections, meaning that Davenport might have a problem paying off the bonds that built them. At the same time, downtown business interests are pushing the city to make its parking policies more business- and customer-friendly.
The trouble comes because the parking system is supposed to be self-sufficient; parking-meter revenue, fines, and parking-deck leases are supposed to pay off construction debt and cover the costs of maintenance, equipment, employees, and other expenses.
Parking revenue is presently about $1.3 million a year, and remaining debt service on the two new garages ranges from just over $950,000 in the current fiscal year to $1.36 million in Fiscal Year 2007. After that, the annual payment is roughly $1.3 million a year, until the parking-garage debt is retired in 2021. With parking expenses outside of debt service running at more than $900,000 a year, the city is looking at a shortfall of roughly $900,000 in future years with current occupancy rates at the new parking facilities. And if the decks aren't doing well, that puts an additional burden on parking meters and fines.
But trying to jack up revenue from those sources is antithetical to business-friendly practices.
The City of Davenport, in other words, is facing a serious quandary: It needs to ensure that its parking revenue stream is adequate to cover the costs of the new parking buildings while at the same time taking the department's emphasis off revenue and toward economic development.
The money issue isn't a short-term crisis, but it could be a long-term problem. "We will make it through this fiscal year," said Davenport Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer, referring to the budget that the city council passed earlier this year for the 12 months that begin July 1.
"At some point, there may need to be difficult choices," said Clayton Lloyd, the city's director of community and economic development. "We can't ignore the revenue need."
There's some debate about the cause of the ramps' sluggish performance so far. Scott Kangas, the city's parking manager, said that downtown employment losses - particularly MCI/WorldCom, which used 122 spaces - have hurt the new structures. "We don't have the bodies that need them [parking spaces] right now," he said.
Davenport City Council member Bob McGivern argued that the main problem is that the parking garages aren't user-friendly. The automated payment system - an unfamiliar process in which users have to pay for their parking before they return to their cars, rather than when they're exiting the ramp - is confusing; the decks aren't clearly identified as public parking; and the main entrance to one of them is in a construction zone on Main Street. "People would rather walk three blocks than use one of them," McGivern said.
Those things are currently being addressed, he said. "I believe it [the changes] will alleviate" the vacancy problem in the garages, he said.
Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin said it's too early to fret. "Yes, I have concerns," he said. However, "it's a little frustrating, to not have six months pass [with the parking garages open] and have people as worried as they are that those spaces aren't filled."
But the point isn't that the decks aren't full but that they're not even close to meeting expectations. At the end of 2004, the city now estimates, the two new ramps will be at 40-percent occupancy for leased monthly spaces, compared to the 80 percent that was expected at this time. That amounts to about $250,000 less in annual revenues than projections for this point in time. (The Isle of Capri leases the ramp at 101 Main at night for nearly $172,000 a year, but that's not figured into the lease numbers.) Furthermore, "transient" parkers are expected to be only 20 per day, compared to the expected 135.
Malin said that the city has done its part, and now it's time for business leaders - such as DavenportOne - to bring in new employers and customers. "We built the ramps, and the business-development community has more than ample parking," Malin said. "It's now up to them to deliver on their promise."
But DavenportOne has claimed that the city's parking system is an impediment to bringing new businesses to downtown Davenport.
"Revenue Generation Should Be Secondary"
In March, DavenportOne gave the city council a list of 12 suggestions to make its parking system more user-friendly. The list was accompanied by the signatures of 700 people. The underlying message of all the ideas could be found in the first suggestion: "Change the objective of the parking system. Make all decisions with the objective of serving and satisfying the customers, both monthly and occasional. Revenue generation should be secondary ... ."
The city moved quickly to form a parking task force - one of the 12 recommendations - and the new body has met three times already. (Meetings are Mondays at 1:30 p.m. at the city's parking office, 102 East Second Street.) The 18-person group includes representatives of the city, DavenportOne staff, business representatives, and other downtown stakeholders, such the Riverboat Development Authority.
That task force is quickly making changes to address the concerns raised. For instance, on May 5 it will announce that the parking decks will be free and open on weekends, on city holidays, and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays. (The change actually took effect on Monday.)
The task force is looking to develop a card or brochure to hand out with parking tickets directing people to the new ramps. It is buying banners to announce that the two decks are public parking. It is exploring having signs on River Drive and Brady and Harrison streets directing the public to the parking structures. A parking attendant to help people use the ramps will be present in the two newer decks from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a trial basis this summer. Brady Street will become the primary access point for the lot at 101 Main Street. These are all among recommendations presented to the city by DavenportOne.
But a lot of these changes cost money. The banners will only be a few hundred dollars, and Bruemmer said the city would simply cut back on maintenance to buy them. Other suggestions are more expensive, and more than one-time costs. Opening the gates from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., for instance, means a loss of parking revenue.
DavenportOne also suggests staffing both parking ramps weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That's a long-term cost that wasn't anticipated in the financial projections for the parking garages. If the city chooses to implement this recommendation permanently, it will put additional financial pressure on the city.
There are also changes coming from city hall rather than the parking committee. Parking administration is being shifted from the Public Works department to Community & Economic Development. The move, Malin said, "is at core a changing of reporting relationships," but it's also an attempt "to re-position that [parking] function as more than just infrastructure, [and instead] as an economic-development tool."
McGivern, who is on the parking task force, would also like to see the city council take up the issues of reducing parking fines from $10 and giving first-time offenders who live in Scott County courtesy tickets. (The $10 expired-meter ticket, an increase from $5, was implemented in November, while only people who live outside Scott County will get courtesy tickets for first offenses.)
"Parking is a vital component to downtown revitalization," McGivern said. Making parking expensive for downtown employers and employees increases the cost of doing business there and puts the central city at a competitive disadvantage with outlying areas. "It's cheaper to build in a greenfield than to move an office downtown," he said.
Few people doubt that all these changes will increase usage of the parking ramps. But, fundamentally, unless they bring the ramps close to their initial use projections, the city is likely to be left with a financing hole. That's because the parking garages have a long way to go before they reach the occupancy levels that were projected.
"We're Actually Going Backward"
It's crucial to note that nobody expected the parking ramps to be full when they opened. "When we built the two ramps, we built surplus into the equation," McGivern said.
Malin noted that the opening of the Mississippi Plaza building, right across the street from the Harrison Street ramp, will add new parkers. Building the decks was "the right decision," he said. "That office building would not have happened without the ramp." The idea that increased parking generates economic development downtown "is working, and it takes time to work," he said.
That's certainly true, and many of the facilities that will feed the parking garages - particularly the River Music Experience, the Figge Art Museum, and the New Venture Center - aren't even open yet.
But it's clear that projections for the parking garages overstated the immediate need for new parking.
According to revenue projections from 2000, both new parking decks were expected to have 70 percent occupancy the first year with 90 transient parkers each day. Those rose to 80 percent and 135 transient parkers in year two, 90 percent and 120 in year three, and 100 percent and 135 in year four.
At the end of this year - well into the second year of the new garages' operation - the city expects 40-percent occupancy for its leased spaces and 20 daily transient parkers. "We're actually going backward," Bruemmer said.
The ramp at 101 Main Street initially exceeded expectations; it had a waiting list when it opened. But that didn't last. According to an overview prepared by the city, "In September there was a slow exodus from this ramp by WorldCom/MCI as they lost staff. ... When the Figge Arts building opens, we anticipate losing 96 [additional] contracts from this ramp, as they will be moving to parking spaces under the Figge. As of April 1, 2004, there were 41 contract spaces available in this ramp."
The other new ramp has had even more difficulty attracting users. The city expects a maximum of 250 monthly leased spaces this year out of the 478 available contracts.
With so many empty spaces, it's a bit of a surprise that part of the River Vision planning process with Davenport and Rock Island includes another parking deck near a riverfront hotel for the Rhythm City Casino.
And considering that the Isle of Capri is asking the City of Bettendorf and the Scott County Regional Authority for assistance with its hotel/parking/convention-center project, it's possible that the City of Davenport will be asked to chip in for a Rhythm City parking structure.
But it needs to fix the situation with the two decks that opened last year before it embarks on another parking project.
The trouble comes because the parking system is supposed to be self-sufficient; parking-meter revenue, fines, and parking-deck leases are supposed to pay off construction debt and cover the costs of maintenance, equipment, employees, and other expenses.
Parking revenue is presently about $1.3 million a year, and remaining debt service on the two new garages ranges from just over $950,000 in the current fiscal year to $1.36 million in Fiscal Year 2007. After that, the annual payment is roughly $1.3 million a year, until the parking-garage debt is retired in 2021. With parking expenses outside of debt service running at more than $900,000 a year, the city is looking at a shortfall of roughly $900,000 in future years with current occupancy rates at the new parking facilities. And if the decks aren't doing well, that puts an additional burden on parking meters and fines.
But trying to jack up revenue from those sources is antithetical to business-friendly practices.
The City of Davenport, in other words, is facing a serious quandary: It needs to ensure that its parking revenue stream is adequate to cover the costs of the new parking buildings while at the same time taking the department's emphasis off revenue and toward economic development.
The money issue isn't a short-term crisis, but it could be a long-term problem. "We will make it through this fiscal year," said Davenport Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer, referring to the budget that the city council passed earlier this year for the 12 months that begin July 1.
"At some point, there may need to be difficult choices," said Clayton Lloyd, the city's director of community and economic development. "We can't ignore the revenue need."
There's some debate about the cause of the ramps' sluggish performance so far. Scott Kangas, the city's parking manager, said that downtown employment losses - particularly MCI/WorldCom, which used 122 spaces - have hurt the new structures. "We don't have the bodies that need them [parking spaces] right now," he said.
Davenport City Council member Bob McGivern argued that the main problem is that the parking garages aren't user-friendly. The automated payment system - an unfamiliar process in which users have to pay for their parking before they return to their cars, rather than when they're exiting the ramp - is confusing; the decks aren't clearly identified as public parking; and the main entrance to one of them is in a construction zone on Main Street. "People would rather walk three blocks than use one of them," McGivern said.
Those things are currently being addressed, he said. "I believe it [the changes] will alleviate" the vacancy problem in the garages, he said.
Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin said it's too early to fret. "Yes, I have concerns," he said. However, "it's a little frustrating, to not have six months pass [with the parking garages open] and have people as worried as they are that those spaces aren't filled."
But the point isn't that the decks aren't full but that they're not even close to meeting expectations. At the end of 2004, the city now estimates, the two new ramps will be at 40-percent occupancy for leased monthly spaces, compared to the 80 percent that was expected at this time. That amounts to about $250,000 less in annual revenues than projections for this point in time. (The Isle of Capri leases the ramp at 101 Main at night for nearly $172,000 a year, but that's not figured into the lease numbers.) Furthermore, "transient" parkers are expected to be only 20 per day, compared to the expected 135.
Malin said that the city has done its part, and now it's time for business leaders - such as DavenportOne - to bring in new employers and customers. "We built the ramps, and the business-development community has more than ample parking," Malin said. "It's now up to them to deliver on their promise."
But DavenportOne has claimed that the city's parking system is an impediment to bringing new businesses to downtown Davenport.
"Revenue Generation Should Be Secondary"
In March, DavenportOne gave the city council a list of 12 suggestions to make its parking system more user-friendly. The list was accompanied by the signatures of 700 people. The underlying message of all the ideas could be found in the first suggestion: "Change the objective of the parking system. Make all decisions with the objective of serving and satisfying the customers, both monthly and occasional. Revenue generation should be secondary ... ."
The city moved quickly to form a parking task force - one of the 12 recommendations - and the new body has met three times already. (Meetings are Mondays at 1:30 p.m. at the city's parking office, 102 East Second Street.) The 18-person group includes representatives of the city, DavenportOne staff, business representatives, and other downtown stakeholders, such the Riverboat Development Authority.
That task force is quickly making changes to address the concerns raised. For instance, on May 5 it will announce that the parking decks will be free and open on weekends, on city holidays, and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays. (The change actually took effect on Monday.)
The task force is looking to develop a card or brochure to hand out with parking tickets directing people to the new ramps. It is buying banners to announce that the two decks are public parking. It is exploring having signs on River Drive and Brady and Harrison streets directing the public to the parking structures. A parking attendant to help people use the ramps will be present in the two newer decks from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a trial basis this summer. Brady Street will become the primary access point for the lot at 101 Main Street. These are all among recommendations presented to the city by DavenportOne.
But a lot of these changes cost money. The banners will only be a few hundred dollars, and Bruemmer said the city would simply cut back on maintenance to buy them. Other suggestions are more expensive, and more than one-time costs. Opening the gates from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., for instance, means a loss of parking revenue.
DavenportOne also suggests staffing both parking ramps weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That's a long-term cost that wasn't anticipated in the financial projections for the parking garages. If the city chooses to implement this recommendation permanently, it will put additional financial pressure on the city.
There are also changes coming from city hall rather than the parking committee. Parking administration is being shifted from the Public Works department to Community & Economic Development. The move, Malin said, "is at core a changing of reporting relationships," but it's also an attempt "to re-position that [parking] function as more than just infrastructure, [and instead] as an economic-development tool."
McGivern, who is on the parking task force, would also like to see the city council take up the issues of reducing parking fines from $10 and giving first-time offenders who live in Scott County courtesy tickets. (The $10 expired-meter ticket, an increase from $5, was implemented in November, while only people who live outside Scott County will get courtesy tickets for first offenses.)
"Parking is a vital component to downtown revitalization," McGivern said. Making parking expensive for downtown employers and employees increases the cost of doing business there and puts the central city at a competitive disadvantage with outlying areas. "It's cheaper to build in a greenfield than to move an office downtown," he said.
Few people doubt that all these changes will increase usage of the parking ramps. But, fundamentally, unless they bring the ramps close to their initial use projections, the city is likely to be left with a financing hole. That's because the parking garages have a long way to go before they reach the occupancy levels that were projected.
"We're Actually Going Backward"
It's crucial to note that nobody expected the parking ramps to be full when they opened. "When we built the two ramps, we built surplus into the equation," McGivern said.
Malin noted that the opening of the Mississippi Plaza building, right across the street from the Harrison Street ramp, will add new parkers. Building the decks was "the right decision," he said. "That office building would not have happened without the ramp." The idea that increased parking generates economic development downtown "is working, and it takes time to work," he said.
That's certainly true, and many of the facilities that will feed the parking garages - particularly the River Music Experience, the Figge Art Museum, and the New Venture Center - aren't even open yet.
But it's clear that projections for the parking garages overstated the immediate need for new parking.
According to revenue projections from 2000, both new parking decks were expected to have 70 percent occupancy the first year with 90 transient parkers each day. Those rose to 80 percent and 135 transient parkers in year two, 90 percent and 120 in year three, and 100 percent and 135 in year four.
At the end of this year - well into the second year of the new garages' operation - the city expects 40-percent occupancy for its leased spaces and 20 daily transient parkers. "We're actually going backward," Bruemmer said.
The ramp at 101 Main Street initially exceeded expectations; it had a waiting list when it opened. But that didn't last. According to an overview prepared by the city, "In September there was a slow exodus from this ramp by WorldCom/MCI as they lost staff. ... When the Figge Arts building opens, we anticipate losing 96 [additional] contracts from this ramp, as they will be moving to parking spaces under the Figge. As of April 1, 2004, there were 41 contract spaces available in this ramp."
The other new ramp has had even more difficulty attracting users. The city expects a maximum of 250 monthly leased spaces this year out of the 478 available contracts.
With so many empty spaces, it's a bit of a surprise that part of the River Vision planning process with Davenport and Rock Island includes another parking deck near a riverfront hotel for the Rhythm City Casino.
And considering that the Isle of Capri is asking the City of Bettendorf and the Scott County Regional Authority for assistance with its hotel/parking/convention-center project, it's possible that the City of Davenport will be asked to chip in for a Rhythm City parking structure.
But it needs to fix the situation with the two decks that opened last year before it embarks on another parking project.
