Students and community members could soon see a decrease in the amount of parking available at the Downtown Mall as the board of the Charlottesville Parking Center plans to either sell its assets or engage in a merger.
Founded in 1959 to provide parking for the Downtown Mall, the CPC owns a surface parking lot on Water Street and the land under the adjacent Water Street garage.
"We have accomplished our mission," CPC President and CEO Jim Berry said. "We just think it's time for another entity, probably the City of Charlottesville, to take over."
Though the parking garage will not be destroyed with a sale or merger, former Charlottesville City Manager Cole Hendrix speculated about the future of the surface parking lot.
"If CPC sells the surface lot next door, that will take some parking out of service," said Hendrix, city manager from 1971-1995. "That land may be getting too expensive for a surface parking lot."
Berry said CPC's owners, approximately 100 shareholders, have never received dividends, as all earnings have been reinvested in the company.
Berry said, however, the surface lot will not necessarily be torn down.
"The surface lot is adjacent to [a city-owned] metered lot, and the City is in the midst of a study to see if our surface lot combined with their metered lot could be a feasible project," Berry said.
In addition to managing the Water Street surface lot and the Water Street garage, CPC owns 284 spaces in the Water Street garage and manages the Market Street parking deck, Berry said.
Berry said he hopes that the deal, whether a sale or merger, will be completed by the end of the year.
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