
WILMINGTON — Downtown visitors could see higher parking prices or lose a parking option at a city-owned lot, now considered a surplus property.
At the Wilmington City Council meeting on Tuesday, city staff made a presentation on a bid to purchase four city-owned properties, including two parking decks at 115 Market St. and 114 N. Second St., the old United Bank building at 115 N. Third St., and a former administrative building at 210 Chestnut St.
The latter two have been declared surplus property after the city’s purchase and move into the Skyline Center.
The offer for all properties was $16 million, made by Wilmington-based Dinosaur Holdings LLC — managed by Jonathan Cohen with registered agent Robbie Parker, an attorney with Lee Kaess Law Firm.
Council voted unanimously to follow staff’s recommendation in denying the sale of all four properties; Charlie Rivenbark recused himself because the buyer is working with Cape Fear Commercial, where Rivenbark is a senior vice president.
However, the offer wasn’t completely disregarded; council requested staff come back with an appraisal for the Second Street deck and analysis on the effects of removing a publicly owned parking deck from downtown. Thus, council went ahead and declared the 114 N. Second St. property as surplus.
“Surplus in a property certainly does not necessarily mean it is going to be for sale,” Mayor Bill Saffo said.
Though staff were against selling the Market Street deck due to its high utilization, parking manager Chance Dunbar explained to council why selling the Second Street deck alone could be a good idea, despite their assessment of the current offer being too low.
The deck, built in 1991, has 391 total parking spaces. According to city staff, the majority of those spaces were used by their colleagues in neighboring office buildings before the city consolidated under one roof. This is projected to cause a $90,000 gross revenue loss in deck proceeds.
Use of the deck has dropped off after the Covid-19 pandemic, when more employers instituted hybrid and work-from-home policies. During weekday peak (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) before 2020, it averaged 85% full; in 2022 and 2023, it dipped to 75% and now sits at 52%. Weekend peak is only 37%.
The city has already spent $2.3 million in repairs in the last two years, expected to add another 15 years onto the life of the structure, but capital costs will continue. Dunbar said around $750,000 in more work is planned, including elevator upgrades and structural repairs.
However, the recent upgrades will make the property more valuable to buyers, who said they’ll take it as is.
With an average net operating income of $160,000 over two years and only a 5% projected growth in area parking activity, staff are predicting a $680,000 operating loss over the next five years.
Additionally, staff claim those using the Second Street deck could use the city’s three facilities nearby, including Market Street, which Dunbar dubbed the city’s “Crown jewel,” along with the RiverPlace deck (400 spaces) and the Ligon Flynn lot (110 spaces). New Hanover County also owns two nearby lots, both combined to offer almost 500 spaces.
The Market Street deck has 570 spaces, office space for 29 employees and two public bathrooms. Dunbar said most of the usage is driven by small businesses. During peak day, it has the capacity to accommodate 280 more vehicles, which is nearly 100 cars over the peak demand at the Second Street lot.
“So if that asset ceased to be public parking at any given time, we can absorb essentially every single one of those parkers down the street at the Market Street deck,” Dunbar told council.
Though, if the city were to take up Dinosaur Holdings on its offer, the Second Street deck would remain available parking, real estate agent Spruill Thompson told council Tuesday.
“The folks that I’m dealing with, folks I represent, part of the partnership is made up of folks that are in the parking business; they are not looking for these decks to tear them down and redevelop, they’re looking to maintain them as parking decks,” Thompson said. “They plan to implement programs that will be for the benefit of the folks that live and work downtown and the folks that live in the rest of Wilmington.”
He elaborated that the plans include restructuring programs to make it “cost efficient” for people to come downtown while raising the prices in “transient areas.”
Though the city is eager to sell surplus properties to offset Skyline Center debt, Saffo emphasized temperance at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I know we would love to sell these properties as quick as possible, but I also don’t believe that we’re in a position where we have to do a fire sale either and I just want to make sure that we’re making the right decision for the citizens of the community and for the development purposes, and also being able to sell the property if necessary to make the deals work,” Saffo said.
The mayor questioned the buyer’s willingness to purchase the buildings without the parking to come with it; Thompson clarified it was his intention to couple the properties.
“They may not have any concrete ideas currently, but in the future, how that plays into this whole redevelopment of this area, I think, is critically important,” Saffo said.
Saffo was the one to call for an analysis of downtown parking conditions should the Second Street deck change hands. He pointed to the deck’s ability to accommodate visitors accessing the courthouse and Project Grace, New Hanover County’s public-private partnership renovation of the downtown library to be accompanied with a museum and housing.
City manager Tony Caudle suggested the analysis be completed by a third party.
Council member Luke Waddell, on board with further exploring the purchase offer, suggested council go ahead and move the Second Street deck to surplus. The resolution was amended to remove the Market Street deck from the vote, staff concluding it was too lucrative for the city to give up.
Dunbar reported the Market Street deck is projected to generate $7 million in net revenue over the next decade, enough to cover the RiverPlace and Skyline Center operating deficits with $300,000 leftover — and that’s at current rates.
“I think $7 million could potentially be on the low end of what we could generate in terms of income at this parking facility,” Dunbar said.
He noted Wilmington is one of the easiest and cheapest places to park across comparable cities in the Southeast, indicating the city has some room to increase rates and remain reasonable.
This idea faces resistance from council member Kevin Spears, noting it was sometimes a burden trying to park in other cities with higher fees.
“I do believe that is slightly the draw to our downtown where you can come and park comfortably and don’t have to worry about being out of town, getting a ticket, getting booted, or waking up in the morning and the car’s gone, been towed or something,” Spears said. “You might get a ticket but it’s not something that’s going to hurt you too bad.”
Thompson also took umbrage with Dunbar’s claims, noting the numbers he saw showed a $300,000 loss at the Market Street deck. He also disputed he lowballed the Second Street deck offer.
“The money that the city has put into the asset over the life — the acquisition cost, interest carry and capital improvements — that does not relate to the market value of properties,” Thompson said. “It’s my understanding that Mr. Caudle had suggested having these assets appraised, and that makes perfect sense. We certainly would yield to that and like to go back and see you at a later date.”
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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