Elite Parking Services of America proposed a 30-year management contract for it to take over operating city-owned parking garages like the Water Street Garage. Elite's proposal also covered three other city-owned garages and all parking meters in downtown, as well as parking hot spots in San Marco and Riverside neighborhoods. [Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union] ▲ Elite Parking Services of America proposed a 30-year management contract for it to take over operating city-owned parking garages like the Water Street Garage. Elite's proposal also covered three other city-owned garages and all parking meters in downtown, as well as parking hot spots in the San Marco and Riverside neighborhoods. [Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union] ▲ Elite Parking Services of America proposed a 30-year management contract for it to take over operating city-owned parking garages like the Water Street Garage. Elite's proposal also covered three other city-owned garages and all parking meters in downtown, as well as parking hot spots in the San Marco and Riverside neighborhoods. [Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union] ▲

A day after resigning from the Downtown Investment Authority board, Dane Grey proposed a 30-year contract for his company Elite Parking Services of America to manage city parking operations.

A recently departed Downtown Investment Authority board member is asking the city of Jacksonville to consider giving his business a 30-year contract to manage parking in downtown, including the authority to set the rates for parking meters and city-owned garages.

Dane Grey, president and CEO of Elite Parking Services of America Inc., stepped down from the DIA board on Oct. 7 and then made a presentation the following day to a DIA committee about how the city could benefit from privatizing management of city parking services.

Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said Wednesday at the authority's monthly board meeting she will come back later with a recommendation on whether DIA should invite proposals for privatizing parking operations.

"My commitment is we are going to review it and analyze it and make a recommendation to the board based on what our conclusions are when we get there, and I'm not there yet," Boyer said after the meeting.

After Grey stepped down from the DIA board, where his term would have run through June 2020, Mayor Lenny Curry appointed him to the JEA board for a term through 2022. The City Council still must confirm a resolution (2019-744) for his appointment to the JEA board. The JEA board will face a decision in four months on whether to sell the city-owned utility.

Privatizing the city's downtown parking operations would not be on the same scale as privatizing JEA, but the city has seen deals for parking garages backfire financially.

The city has poured tens of millions of dollars of subsidies into three privately owned parking garages as part of a deal approved in 2004. One of the Metropolitan Parking Solutions garages is next to the county courthouse, and the other two garages are at the sports complex.

The deal was based on expectations that Metropolitan Parking Solutions would be profitable, and the city would share in the profit. Instead, the city has continued to provide loans to cover multi-million dollar shortfalls.

"I think there's a lot that can be learned from that experience," Boyer said.

Elite Parking Services of America's presentation on its proposal showed its financial partners are Signet Real Estate Group and Iberia Capital Partners. Signet Real Estate Group is connected to the Metropolitan Parking Solutions garages.

Grey could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Elite Parking's proposal, which the Downtown Investment Authority did not solicit, proposes a 30-year contract for the Jacksonville-based company to manage on-street parking meters. The company also would manage the city-owned Water Street Garage, downtown library garage, Ed Ball Building garage and Yates Garage.

Three city-owned parking lots would come under the management contract on Forsyth Street, Bay at Ocean street, and the Jacksonville Landing, according to Elite's proposal.

Elite says it would guarantee an annual payment to the city so it would not get less than it does now from its city-managed parking operation. Above that figure, Elite would share profits with the city.

Elite says it would invest $6 million on upgrades to parking properties, equipment, customized technology and other improvements. Some changes outlined by Elite would enable people to pay for parking by using smartphone apps and technology that connects payments to a vehicle's license plate.

Smartphone apps could notify parkers when their meter time is about to end and let them extend the time by using the app.

Elite also would operate valet parking in downtown and a shuttle service connecting garages on the outer edge of downtown to buildings where people work.

The city would retain ownership of the parking garages and lots. The city still would be responsible for the cost of maintaining the "structural viability" of parking garages, according to Elite's proposal.

In addition to downtown, Elite proposes the contract cover parking management for areas of Riverside, San Marco Boulevard and San Marco Place where congestion can make it hard to find a parking spot at busy times.

Elite's proposal would put in place recommendations from various parking studies the city has done.

Boyer said she likes the idea of a shuttle bringing people into downtown form outlying garages because some office buildings "are challenged in renting space by the lack of parking." She said a shuttle service would be a "better outcome for downtown" than continuously building more garages in the core of downtown.

She said she hasn't seen anything in Elite's proposal that the city could not do on its own, though she added "some of it may be easier for them to do."

If the DIA board decides to consider privatizing parking, the next step would be to put out a solicitation for all entities interested in making offers. City Council ultimately would have the final word if the DIA board supported a long-term management contract.

"All of it would have to be approved by City Council," Boyer said. "They're all city assets."