A new owner is in the process of buying Chicago’s parking meter system, setting them up to take advantage of the infamous deal that privatized them nearly two decades ago.
The system’s current owner, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, signed a deal to sell the system to New York investment firm Stonepeak Partners, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.
The City Council must still approve the deal, and the statement from Johnson spokesperson Griffin Krueger about the proposed sale noted only that body can “approve or reject a transfer of ownership of the Concession Agreement.”
The news marks a turning point after talk of an impending sale sparked speculation in January that Johnson might try to use taxpayer money to buy the meters back.
The price was too high, Johnson’s team determined, and the hope that the city could finally wiggle out of the notoriously bad 2008 deal orchestrated by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was again extinguished.
Daley convinced aldermen to back the original privatization deal as the city faced the fallout of the 2008 recession. The buying group, led by Morgan Stanley, secured a 75-year lease to around 36,000 meters.
The deal was set to net the city about $1.15 billion, including $150 million dedicated to plugging a budget deficit and $400 million for long-term reserves.
In the years since, the sale has proved to be disastrous for the city. Between 2009 and 2024, the meters brought in $1.97 billion in parking revenues alone, with $1.87 billion in gross profits, a net operating income of $1 billion, according to CPM audit.
The return that already towers over the sale price does not include the 57 years remaining on the deal and the added costs it places on Chicagoans, including raised parking fees and serving as a major roadblock to street redevelopment.
The sale, first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, will be introduced to the City Council Wednesday, according to Krueger. That introduction could set the measure up to pass in June.
The council’s power to approve or reject the deal gave the city leverage to weigh purchasing the system itself.
Such a buy became a top focus at City Hall for several days in January before Johnson squashed speculation by announcing the price would be “far too high.” The city would have had to pay at least twice as much as the 2008 $1.15 billion sale price, the mayor said at the time.
“This purchase would have made a bad deal even worse,” he said. “The price was too high and requires debt service payments that extend too far and impose too much risk. Chicagoans would most likely end up footing the bill yet again for this original decision to privatize our parking.”
Krueger’s Monday statement did not include details about how much Stonepeak will pay for the system. The firm has around $88 billion in assets, according to its website.
A Stonepeak spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
