Politics

Chicago’s Parking Meters Have Been Sold, Again. Here’s What to Know

The Chicago City Council voted 46-3 Tuesday to allow Chicago’s parking meters to be sold to an investment firm after months of controversy that dredged up memories of the 2008 deal that continues to roil Chicago politics nearly two decades later.

Here’s a breakdown of what it means that New York-based Stonepeak Partners is set to become the new owner of the city’s more than 36,000 meters.

Everybody now hates the original deal, crafted by former Mayor Richard M. Daley and rubber-stamped by the City Council, to lease the city’s meters for 75 years in return for $1.15 billion. Why?

Watch this.

Why are the parking meters being sold again?

A private investment consortium made up of Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi put the meters up for sale in 2024, after the city’s meters generated $2.2 billion in revenue for the firm between 2009 and 2025, records show. That is approximately $500 million more than was paid to the city nearly 18 years ago, records show.

The 2008 deal requires the City Council to approve any sale.

Why didn’t the city buy the meters back?

Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters “the final purchase price was far too high.” The city bid $3.2 billion for the meters — by far the highest offer — before reversing course.

The city would have had to borrow billions to finance the purchase, pledging to repay that debt with motor vehicle parking fine receipts as well as off-street parking and garage tax receipts, in addition to all parking meter revenue, according to the Johnson administration. Officials would also have been required to use the city’s other tax revenues to make up a shortfall, which could threaten the city’s ability to provide other services, according to the Johnson administration.

How much is Stonepeak set to spend to buy the meters?

The “alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets” will pay $2.53 billion to purchase Chicago Parking Meters LLC. The firm, which has offices in Houston, London, Singapore and Hong Kong, has approximately $93 billion in assets under management.

Stonepeak announced it had sold Omni Air, just 24 hours before the City Council vote. Why?

Omni Air International had a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide long-haul deportation flights, which were being used to carry out the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation effort.

Mother Jones magazine reported in March that passengers were shackled on those flights, some of which lasted two days, and not allowed to use the bathroom.

More than a dozen progressive members of the City Council said they would not allow Stonepeak to buy the city’s meters unless it sold Omni Air.

Ald. Matt O’Shea called this agreement the ‘deal of the century.’ Is it?

Once the deal closes by the end of the year, the firm will pay the city $75 million, according to the agreement.

In addition, Stonepeak will share 5% of its profits with the city, which is expected to yield $376.2 million for the city over the next 57 years, according to the agreement. Those funds will be earmarked for the city’s pension funds, officials said.

That’s based on estimates the meters will generate $7 billion during the life of the agreement.

If the meters are sold again, the city will get an additional payment of 2% of the sale price if Stonepeak sells the meters. The deal gives the city’s chief financial officer 30 days to review that proposed sale and make a recommendation to the City Council, which will have 90 days to approve or reject the sale.

Critics of Johnson blasted his handling of the parking meter sale and accused him of withholding crucial information from the City Council that members could have used to force changes to the deal.

That deal was negotiated by five members of the City Council: Alds. Pat Dowell (39th Ward), Nicole Lee (11th Ward), Walter “Red” Burnett (27th Ward), Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) and Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward).

Why was the vote delayed?

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward), whose proposal for the city to create an infrastructure trust to buy back the meters failed to garner any support, and Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) voted against the deal.

Hall said the deal should have required the new owners of the parking meters to contract with more firms owned by Black Chicagoans.

Since the City Council’s rules allow any two alderpeople to block a vote, that meant a vote set for Friday was delayed until Tuesday.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) joined Hall and Ervin in voting against the deal.

Waguespack is the only member of the City Council who was on the City Council in 2008 and voted against the original deal. Dowell and Alds. Michelle Harris (8th Ward), Anthony Beale (9th Ward) and Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) voted for the original deal and for the meters to be sold, again.

Will this deal allow the city to remove meters to build bicycle or bus lanes?

The city will still have to make “true-up” payments to Chicago Parking Meters to compensate the firm for lost revenue when meters are removed, temporarily taken out of commission with the city’s permission or used by motorists with disabled parking permits.

In all, taxpayers have paid the parking meter firm $246 million to cover those costs since 2008, records show.

However, the deal gives the city a break on the cost of taking meters out of service for seven special events annually, to be chosen every year.

Will this sale mean it will cost more to park at a meter in Chicago?

No, but there are proposals to tie the cost of parking at a meter in Chicago to inflation. That could boost the city’s small share of revenue from the meters — and prevent the city from having to compensate the firm for meters taken out of service.

So, when will Chicago get its meters back?

2083.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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