Winter Haven officials inked a deal to purchase a 292-space downtown parking garage from Six/Ten LLC for more than $10.2 million.
City commissioners voted 4-0 on May 26 to enter a comprehensive agreement with Winter Haven developer Six/Ten and property owner Urban Action LLC to purchase a parking garage to be built on the northeast corner of Avenue C and Third Street Southwest. Mayor Brian Yates recused himself the discussion and vote because of a conflict of interest.
“The public benefit of this is an increase of 292 public parking spaces. That number is significant,” City Manager T. Michael Stavres previously said. “It’s 21% of available downtown parking within the core study area.”
The parking garage plan came to the board as an unsolicited proposal from Six/Ten in October. The developer has offered to build a four-story parking garage on the property owned by Urban Action LLC, whose registered managers include Six/Ten’s Carl “Bud” Strang III and Joseph Bogdahn, according to SunBiz.org online records.
Under the agreement, the city will pay a maximum price of $10,217,496 for the parking garage and the land once construction is completed. The city manager will have the right to approve any change orders during construction, which could result in overall price changes.
The deal ensures that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will continue to have access to the site — which formerly served as a gas station ― which is part of a larger statewide petroleum site cleanup.
Winter Haven will hire Lakeland-based engineering and design consultants Kimley Horn to act as the city’s representative in ensuring the parking garage is constructed to technical standards. This will cost the city an additional $285,000. The estimated timeline for construction was originally 10 months when proposed. The new agreement allows up to 18 months. It also allows Six/Ten to ask for “reasonable extensions for good cause shown.”
Is the parking garage a good financial deal?
Commissioner Chad Davis asked whether having Six/Ten build the parking garage would result in cost savings for the city.
Stavres said the city had Six/Ten’s proposal reviewed by an independent third-party, Walker Consultants. The consultant’s eight-page report determined “the proposed parking garage demonstrates both cost-effectiveness and overall public benefit.”
The report states the cost of the parking garage is only $23,224 per space, below the national median cost of $31,400 and the Tampa regional price of $27,224. It concluded, “this cost is within acceptable market parameters for a turn-key, fixed-price delivery parking structure.”
It reached these numbers by considering the price of the land separately. Six/Ten proposed the cost for the land at $2 million. This is lower than a recent appraisal done by the city putting the land’s value at more than $3.3 million.
“I’m enthusiastically supporting this project,” Davis said.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven is paying $10.2M for a new parking garage downtown
Reporting by Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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