Salt Lake City's Redevelopment Agency agreed Thursday to pay $5 million for a public parking structure to be built with a new high-rise office tower — that is, if the tower brings in as much money as developers hope.

The City Council, acting as the RDA board, voted 6-1 to approve the agreement with Hamilton Partners and Wasatch Property Management, which jointly plan to build the 21-story, 430,000-square-foot office building at 222 S. Main. The office building will need a parking garage for the employees of its tenants, and the RDA sees an opportunity to increase public parking access at a key spot along downtown's Main Street.

"We have focused our attention on Main Street for a long time, and parking has been a major issue," Councilman and board member Dave Buhler said.

The sole "no" vote was cast by Nancy Saxton, who wanted to see as part of the agreement a deal granting the RDA more of a financial benefit if the office tower proves more successful than planned.

The RDA will not be granting the $5 million to the developers, as it typically does when it provides redevelopment assistance, because the fund does not have $5 million available.

Instead, the cost for the parking — as well as a handful of accompanying details, such as an access walkway between the structure and Main Street — will be paid for by a loan. The borrower will be the RDA and the creditor will be the developers.

RDA funding is based on tax revenue generated by a development, so the agency will repay the developers by reimbursing a portion of the tax increment the RDA picks up from the new office space. The RDA will collect 40 percent of the taxes generated by the office space, and 85 percent of that will go back to the developers over a 20-year period. So if the tax revenue doesn't come through, the developers don't get repaid.

The RDA is supporting the parking structure because 100 of its planned 840 parking stalls will be public. The RDA will require those 100 stalls to be on the lower level of the parking garage and mandate that they be available at the same rate as a downtown parking meter, currently $1 an hour.

The typical cost of public parking in lots downtown is between $2 and $4 an hour, RDA staff members say.

The parking structure — all 840 stalls — will also have to be available for free use during 10 special events each year.

The agreement comes with a number of other stipulations placed on the developers. Among the requirements, the lease rate on the new office space must not undercut rates charged by similar office buildings downtown.

Councilman and board member Eric Jergensen called the increased availability of downtown parking "a tremendous benefit for the developers but also for the city."

Also at Thursday's RDA board meeting, it was announced that RDA director Dave Oka has resigned to take a redevelopment job in North Las Vegas. Oka has been at the Salt Lake City RDA since December 2001; before that, he worked as a redevelopment official in Las Vegas.

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