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City paves way for its 7th garage downtown.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Downtown parking is big business for Eugene city government. And it's a business that's about to get even bigger.

Eugene officials are preparing to sign a development agreement for the seventh city-owned downtown parking garage. The $10.5 million structure is to be built along East Eighth Avenue, between Mill and High streets next to the proposed Whole Foods Market.

Parking garages are expensive to build. And they're sometimes controversial, as shown by community debate that flared earlier this year about the Whole Foods project.

Some critics say it can be inappropriate for the city to build the garages, and that existing downtown parking garages are underused.

So why does the city bother to keep building these costly and often unsightly behemoths?

The main answer is that city officials and downtown boosters believe that the garages help attract businesses and private investment to downtown.

Private developers won't build garages because the structures don't generate enough profit.

And once the garages are built and their debt paid off, the structures make some money for the city.

In the next fiscal year, profits from the city's overall parking operations, including parking garages and surface parking, are expected to provide $547,000 to the city's general fund.

`It's been our practice for many years to send dividends to the (city's) general fund,' said George Jessie, who recently retired as Eugene's parking services manager and still works on a contract basis for the city.

The city's financial strategy with the garages is relatively straightforward. The city takes on debt to build parking structures, then typically uses...

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