The developer building the Hay Street parking deck for the city of Fayetteville is asking for another $1.5 million to cover rising costs and weather delays.

The increase would be in addition to the $14.8 million the city has borrowed to build the deck next to Segra Stadium. The deck, expected to open this summer, will primarily serve private businesses that are part of the the city's downtown revitalization plans, such as a hotel, commercial offices and the new Prince Charles residences.

About 100 to 200 spaces out 486 in the deck will be available to the public for paid parking after hours and weekends, a city spokesman said, but the deck will not be accessible for parking during Woodpeckers games at the stadium.

The City Council will discuss the $1.5 million request on Monday at 5 p.m. in the Lafayette Conference Room of City Hall. The costs of financing the additional debut would be another $600,000 over 19 years of payments, according to city staff.

Mayor Mitch Colvin said Thursday that he had “more questions than answers” about the request.

“What I will say is, ‘Taxpayers are not a bank,’” he said. “This is the part that I'm having trouble with as to why (the developer) feels the need to ask the taxpayers to contribute more on something we have already agreed upon contractually.”

Jordan Jones, the project manager for the Prince Charles Hotel renovation project, is a principal in Hay Street Development Pad LLC, which is building the deck. He said the company is putting forth a proposal in which the city over time would get back the additional $1.5 million it would be paying for the cost overruns.

He said the true cost increase to complete the project is $2 million, and his company is offering to shell out $500,000 of that.

Also, the company will agree not to ask the city for any more funding on the project, Jones said.

Jones said his company is proposing to potentially pay more in city property taxes in the future by guaranteeing an increased assessed value for its downtown portfolio of projects, including a new Hyatt Place hotel and offices opening above the deck in 2020, and the Prince Charles apartment and retail project. The company is offering to guarantee to pay the taxes on an amount that is $45 million more in taxable value in the year after the new Segra baseball stadium opens. If the values don't increase that much over that year, the company would still pay the additional taxes, Jones said. In the current contract with the city, the company agrees to pay taxes on a $37 million increase in tax values.

Also, Hay Street Development Pad agrees that it will lease an additional 50 parking spaces from the city at the same terms as its existing parking lease, which is $50 a month per space.

In December 2017, the City committed to investing more than $14.5 towards the construction of the parking garage.

“In exchange, (Hay Street Development) committed to developing and managing construction of the garage for free,” Jones states in a proposed presentation to the council. “The construction costs for the parking garage have increased to $16.5 million due to multiple issues including: increased costs of materials, increased structural requirements and concrete needs for the garage due to building two buildings on top, rain delays and associated general conditions, and Hurricane Florence preparedness.”

If Hay Street Development is forced to cover 100 percent of the additional garage costs, “our team will need to make significant changes to our development program,” Jones states.

The parking deck has been the target of questions and critics since it became widely understood that most of the spaces would be reserved and not available for Woodpeckers games.

City spokesman Kevin Arata said last week that some of the deck's 486 spaces will be considered “flex space” to serve two drivers — such as an office worker during the day, and a Prince Charles tenant at night — for a total capacity of 545. He said 300 spaces will be dedicated to the offices built atop the deck; 120 spaces for the Hyatt, also atop the deck; 90 spaces for the Prince Charles; five for the adjacent Amtrak depot; and 30 for Woodpeckers players and staff.

Based on demand, the public could find 100 to 200 spots available in the deck, Arata said. “But it’s based on demand so not something we can say with definitive numbers. It depends on when employees are in office spaces and hotel patrons are in their rooms as to how many vehicles typically reserved for them in the deck will be utilized,” he said.

The city now expects the block of Hay Street in front of the stadium to be closed to traffic during Woodpeckers games, which will mean the deck would not be available to drivers attending games, Arata said. When asked about handicap parking, he said, “We will have ample ADA-accessible parking, currently set for the Pittman lot behind City Hall. We will address the need for ADA-accessible parking in the Hay Street garage once it opens and we’ve seen how our current plans work for game-day patrons.”

He said the city “will continue to monitor the situation as patrons warm up to the traffic flow and parking situation downtown, and adjust our plans accordingly.”

The city plans to start charging drivers for streetside parking in downtown, probably this year, and will charge drivers $10 to park at the Franklin Street deck during Woodpeckers games. Arata said the city has not decided whether that deck will start charging after hours and on weekends when there aren't events.

Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at jhenderson@fayoberver.com or 910-486-3596.