This afternoon, ahead of Monday’s Annapolis City Council meeting, City Manager David Jarrell has released an “Overview of the Hillman Garage Concession Agreement and City Dock Resiliency Project.” The document outlines the structure of the City’s transaction with Annapolis Mobility & Resilience Partners (AMRP), the consortium of companies that won the bid to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the new Hillman Garage.
At Monday’s meeting, the City Council will take up the issue under R-9-22, a resolution of support for the execution of the agreement.
A pre-development agreement was signed between the City and AMRP in December of 2020 after AMRP was selected for the project through a competitive process that was launched in August of 2019.
AMRP’s member firms include Amber Infrastructure/Hunt (Developer), Whiting-Turner (Design-Build Contractor), BCT Architects (Master Planner), Walker Parking Consultants (Lead Designer, Hillman Garage), WSP (Lead Designer, City Dock), Mahan Rykiel (Landscape Architect), Premium Parking (Parking Operator), and Via (Mobility Solutions).
The details of the concession agreement have been reviewed by the City’s consultants, including CBRE for real estate and construction issues, Davenport and Company for financial issues, and Squire Patton Boggs for legal issues.
The concession agreement is the formal legal framework that outlines the obligations of both parties in the financing, construction, and operation of the garage. Known as a P3 (Public-Private Partnership), the deal allows AMRP to finance the deal using future earnings of the garage. The City maintains ownership, and after 30 years of AMRP operations, the garage reverts back to the City for operations, maintenance, and receipt of revenues. In addition, the City will receive a one-time payment of between $20 million and $25 million that can be used to partially fund the reimagining of City Dock. With this agreement, the risk associated with the financing, construction, operations, and maintenance of the new garage is borne by AMRP.
“Risk – that is the key to what makes this deal worthwhile for the City. Of course, relieving the taxpayer of the burden of financing this major capital project through traditional bond issuance is a significant benefit, but I believe the strength of this agreement is that the City is transferring, and AMRP is assuming, the risk for the project,” said City Manager David Jarrell. “I encourage the Council to vote ‘yes’ on the Resolution as this agreement is the best arrangement for the City.”
The City’s summary of the agreement (PDF) is below, or here!
