Parking Garage Construction Could Begin This Year

Work on the new parking garage planned for the development at Higgins and Mannheim roads could begin as early as this fall, and is expected to begin no later than 2013.

voted in favor of preliminary plans, 7-1, put forth by The Parking Spot to build a parking garage, hotel and restaurant at the intersection of Mannheim and Higgins Roads.

“The market is great for what we do,” said Kevin Shrier, chief operating officer of The Parking Spot, based in Chicago. “We would start tomorrow if we could.”

Earlier:

The company has completed similar projects near other major airports in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston. The Parking Spot also operates as TPS Des Plaines, LLC, the company that purchased the land from the city.

Seventh Ward Alderman Dan Wilson, voted against the plan. Wilson said he was concerned about traffic congestion in the area and work that would need to be done on Orchard Place, a small road running through the property.

Plans indicate that shuttles transporting parking garage patrons to O’Hare airport would go south on Orchard Place and then east onto Higgins, creating heavy use on a small road that the city would need to repair, Wilson said.

Fifth Ward Alderman James Brookman said the company is asking $2 million for the piece of land the hotel is to be built on and that that number is scaring off potential hotel bidders.

The preliminary plans have called for dividing up the land into parcels.

“[You should] do something to be a better partner,” Brookman said. “You are not holding up your half of the deal.”

Shrier said he didn’t know of any price on the land and that he was under the impression that his company was “accepting any proposals.” He said the hotel business was performing poorly because of the weak economy, and it could be seven years before a hotel is “viable.”

Brookman said that The Parking Spot will only pay a 50 cents per head parking tax to the city for its first five years of business whereas other O’Hare area businesses pay a $1 per head tax.

Shrier said that during their bidding process in 2010, The Parking Spot suggested that Des Plaines officials implement a parking tax, which the city didn’t have then.

The ordinance will move on to second reading.

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