No Plans to Lease Parking Spaces in Transit Center

Drivers will not be able to lease or "buy" the rights to one of the 365 parking spaces in PARTA's new Kent Central Gateway transit center in downtown Kent.

The new transit center, in which the parking aspect was scheduled to open this month, won't open until mid April, the Record-Courier reported Friday.

Bryan Smith, director of planning for PARTA, said that when the deck opens it will be available to everyone.

"We do not plan to lease spaces," Smith said in an email.

Essentially, that means business and property owners won't be able to plunk down cash for guaranteed spaces in the deck.

The city, which invested about $4 million to help build the parking levels of the deck, has entered into a lease agreement with PARTA to manage the public spaces.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said the lease agreement gives sole responsibility of managing those 365 parking spaces to PARTA.

Bowling said the lease agreement also stipulates that PARTA shall manage both the transit aspects of the center and its parking spaces to maximize their uses and make parking available for downtown users.

"The city does not directly control any spaces in the deck," Bowling said in an email.

It will cost drivers to park in the deck. PARTA is working with a consulting firm to determine how much it will cost to park.

Smith said part of the discussion includes the idea of selling parking passes to the deck so drivers don't have to pay a daily fee.

"And no, we haven't sold a single pass," he said.