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Youngstown Council reaches tentative deal on parking
YOUNGSTOWN
City officials say they’ve come to a tentative agreement on changing a parking deal with a major downtown company that will save the city about $110,000 to $130,000 annually.
VXI Global Solutions, a call center at the city-owned 20 Federal Place office building, has verbally agreed to have its employees park at the Covelli Centre, also owned by the city, rather than the Plaza Parking Deck, Mayor Charles Sammarone and T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director, said Wednesday.
Since May, VXI was reducing its monthly rent by $15,750 — $189,000 a year — to pay parking fees at the deck. As part of contracts to get VXI to first come downtown and then expand, city officials guaranteed that company workers would be able to park for free.
The city will provide a written contract to VXI shortly for its executive board to approve reflecting the parking location change, and company employees will begin parking at the center Nov. 1, Woodberry said.
The city owns the center, so there isn’t any fee associated with having VXI employees park there.
VXI agreed to the change as long as the city provides shuttle service to employees between the company’s office and the center as well as have security at the facility, Sammarone and Woodberry said. They said the city agreed to those changes.
Because of those expenses, the city won’t save the entire $189,000 annual loss over parking, Sammarone said. But the city still will save about $110,000 to $130,000 a year, the mayor added.
That money will be used to make improvements to 20 Federal Place, particularly the elevators, which are in bad shape, Sammarone said.
Also, the deck at 16 N. Champion St. is in receivership and no longer owned by USA Parking Systems. Ampco System Parking is managing the deck.
After the city couldn’t come to an agreement in March with USA Parking to provide free parking for additional employees, the city administration told VXI and USA to work out a deal. That’s when the annual parking contract for VXI workers jumped from $60,000 a year for 250 spots at the deck to $189,000 annually for 700 spaces.
During the two months between the two deals, VXI employees parked at the center. VXI employees complained about the longer walk and the safety of the center’s parking facilities.
The shuttles and security should resolve those concerns, Sammarone said.
Also at the council’s Wednesday session, Louis Frangos, head of USA Parking, said he is working to regain ownership of the parking deck.
City officials had expressed concerns about its condition. But Frangos said he invested a lot of money in improving the facility. Frangos said a judge ordered the work to stop because the deck is in receivership.