Birmingham Economic Development Partners

From Bhamwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Birmingham Economic Development Partners LLC is a private company founded in 2020 which made an offer to purchase six public parking decks built and operated by the Birmingham Parking Authority.

The company, headed by Shipt founder Bill Smith, made the unsolicited offer of $40,375,000 to the City of Birmingham in October 2020. Smith stated that the group would invest another $10 million to upgrade the facilities and update parking technology. The company would also honor existing parking contracts at the same rates for at least two years, and keep all existing employees.

If approved, the sale would leave BPA to manage Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 2 adjacent to Boutwell Auditorium, as well as two privately-owned decks under contract, and several surface parking lots. Mayor Randall Woodfin supported the proposed sale as a way to offset the city's revenue shortfall from the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, and potentially re-hire some of the 158 Birmingham Public Library staff on furlough. According to him, the revenues from property taxes alone would nearly make up for the loss of net revenues from BPA's operation of the decks.

The BPA's board of directors criticized the proposal as "short-sighted," and warned that the blow would leave the authority without enough capital to continue operating.

Parking decks

References

  • Prickett, Sam (October 22, 2020) "Woodfin Says Sale of Parking Decks Would Lessen COVID-19’s Economic Damage." BirminghamWatch
  • Johnson, Roy S. (October 22, 2020) "Will proposed sale of parking decks save library jobs, speed neighborhood revitalization?" The Birmingham News
  • Coker, Angel (October 26, 2020) "Birmingham Parking Authority responds to potential sale of downtown decks." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Coker, Angel (October 27, 2020) "Bill Smith talks plans for downtown parking decks if city approves sale." Birmingham Business Journal