When Terry Espy heard someone wanted to buy two of the city’s parking decks, she called Wilmington City Council members and said, “Do not, DO NOT, sell these decks.”

Espy, who served on the city’s parking committee for seven years, has an office in downtown Wilmington and pays for a monthly parking pass to use a city space. She fears the effects on people who work and visit downtown if the city sells decks to private entities. Unlike city governments, private firms need to profit from their purchases.

“The daily rates and hourly rates are sometimes double or more than most cities would have charged,” she said.

The Wilmington City Council voted July 16 to turn down a $16 million bid for a city-owned office building and two downtown parking decks as they wait for updated property appraisals.

But they did declare one of the properties – the parking deck at 114 N. Second St. – as surplus property and asked staff to take a closer look at downtown parking and how it could tie into future development in the area.

The office building involved in the bid, 115 N. Third St., is part of a collection of former city office buildings on the market to offset the cost of the city’s purchase of 929 N. Front St. and surrounding property, including a parking deck. City departments began moving to the 12-story building at 929 N. Front St., previously the headquarters of pharmaceutical firm PPD and now called Skyline Center, last year.

In June, the city received the unsolicited offer of $16 million for the Second Street parking deck at 114 N. Second St., the Market Street deck at 115 Market St., the five-story office building at 115 N. Third St. and property at 210 Chestnut St.

Aubrey Parsley, the city’s director of economic development, told the council on July 16 that the properties cover 2.4 acres, have more than 330,000 square feet, and have a tax appraisal of $18.2 million.

Parsley said the nearly 50,800-square-foot office on Third Street has “little-to-no” usage by the city, and the Second Street parking deck has been underutilized since the city consolidated its offices into the Skyline Center campus.

Chance Dunbar, Wilmington’s director of parking and downtown services, said the 391-space Second Street parking deck had good usage – around 85% at weekday peaks – before the COVID-19 pandemic.

But shifts to remote or hybrid work and the city’s office consolidation have led to a dip in usage. Current weekday peak usage sits at about 52%, with peak weekend usage at about 37%, Dunbar told the council.

Parsley said city staff supported declaring the Second Street parking deck as surplus because of that underutilization and because they believe current users could be accommodated in other city-owned decks.

Parsley said the Market and Second street decks together represent 65% of the city-owned parking capacity in the core of the city’s central business district.

Spruill Thompson, senior vice president with Cape Fear Commercial, represented the bidder, Wilmington-based Dinosaur Holdings, at the meeting. City council member Charlie Rivenbark, also a senior vice president at Cape Fear Commercial, recused himself from voting on the bid.

Thompson told the council that the prospective buyers don’t want to redevelop the downtown parking decks but instead want to buy them and restructure the parking programs. Thompson said the city’s ongoing efforts to get updated appraisals on the property make sense and that the bidder would be interested in coming back to the city once the appraisals are complete.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the $16 million bid was a low offer because for one thing, real estate industry estimates for a new deck can reach $45,000 a space.

As downtown Wilmington has transformed over the past two decades, “we knew that we needed additional parking if we were going to really make any kind of significant push for revitalization,” Saffo said during an interview July 25. “So those parking decks are critically important, No. 1 for the revitalization efforts; No. 2 to support the merchants that are down there because we don’t have any parking requirements in the downtown area; and then, of course, No. 3, from our perspective, is we’re trying to sell these buildings.”

For example, one of the former city office buildings for sale, 305 Chestnut St., is likely a tear-down and redevelopment situation. If there’s no parking available, the buyers and developers of 305 Chestnut would have to build a deck themselves, Saffo said, “which makes it a lot more expensive as opposed to them going and leasing space from the city that’s already got deck space available.”

Officials say another unknown is the impact of Project Grace, the redevelopment of a New Hanover County-owned block into public and private facilities, on parking needs.

Christina Haley, president and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc., said the primary challenge for downtown parking is ensuring that locals, tourists and employers can easily understand and navigate their options.

“As on-street parking reaches capacity, parking decks are crucial for providing inventory for downtown patrons,” said Haley, whose organization provides economic development services. “These decks also support downtown office users and residents with monthly passes, with current availability in the city’s inventory.”

She said when WDI assists with a business location or expansion, the organization coordinates with the city to identify parking solutions that align with the company’s needs.

“The recent relocation of city offices to the Skyline Center has opened up more parking space in the downtown core, particularly in the Second Street Parking Deck, which previously served city employees. This availability offers additional opportunities for larger companies and small business owners in sectors like retail, restaurants and other industries to secure space or monthly parking passes for their employees, as well as supporting visitors downtown,” Haley said.

She said having ample parking for businesses “is crucial for attracting companies to the downtown area. Convenient parking makes it more viable for businesses of all sizes to operate downtown, leading to increased economic activity and growth.”