RFQ for largest parking privatisation in US
Private firms will submit financial statements and a business plan to the city to own and manage 89,500 parking spaces throughout the five boroughs. The New York On-Street System is the largest in the US and twice the size of the next-largest US municipal on-street metered parking system in Los Angeles.
The selected partner must then pay a minimum of $100m as collateral to secure the annual parking revenue. However any arrangement would maintain the City's control over "meter rates, installation and removal of meters, operating hours of metered spaces, enforcement and adjudications", according to the RFQ.
The deadline for submissions is 31 July, after which a list of prequalified firms will be announced.
However New York officials are aware that privatising parking meters has caused problems in the past, most notably in Chicago. In 2008, the mayor at the time Richard Daley accepted a $1.1bn lump payment in exchange for granting a private firm a 75-year lease on the city's meters. The city has subsequently had to pay the firm for lost revenue and many believe it has lost out on billions over the long life of the lease as result.
