Fall River administration says sell the Pearl Street garage for $1.05 million instead of paying more than $5 million in repairs
The bid came from the company that already holds rights to the garage's spaces. Councilors questioned the numbers and the history of the lease, and sent the question toward the council's Real Estate Committee.
FALL RIVER Fall River should sell its aging Pearl Street parking garage for $1,050,000 rather than spend $5.2 million or more fixing it, the Coogan administration told the City Council on Tuesday night, Oct. 27, arguing that a lease running to 2043 keeps the garage's income too low to justify the cost.
The city asked for bids to learn what the garage would sell for in its current condition and received one, from First Bristol, which holds the lease on the garage's spaces through 99 Main Parking LLC, Matthew Thomas, the city's special counsel, told the council's Committee on Finance. The city has not accepted the offer, he said, and it would first have to declare the garage surplus, which has not happened. "Obviously, our position on this, the city's position, is that it makes sense to sell it for a million and 50 and not to invest the 5.17," Thomas said.
What repairs would cost
An October 2024 conditions assessment by the engineering firm Tighe and Bond found $2,289,611 in high priority repairs, $1,380,309 in medium priority repairs and $1,505,633 in low priority repairs, Thomas said, about $5.2 million in all. Applying the roughly 20% overrun the city saw on its Third Street project, he said, the cost comes to about $6.2 million. He said the estimates include a 30% contingency.
Borrowing for the work would cost about $398,000 a year in debt service, according to figures Thomas said came from the city's bond consultant. Doing nothing "really makes no sense here," he said. "If we do nothing in five years, that garage is not going to exist." Structural problems have already cut the spaces available to 219, he said.
Why the lease matters
Thomas walked the council through the garage's history. In 2013, after the city had turned Pearl Street over to the Fall River Redevelopment Authority, the authority signed a new lease with 99 Main Parking LLC for a minimum of 150 spaces, with options totaling 400, a 10-year term and four five-year options that can carry it to 2043. The rate was set at $35 a month plus increases tied to the consumer price index, about $37 now, and the lease dropped earlier language that had the spaces shared with other users, giving the leaseholder exclusive rights to 400 spaces in a garage and lot with 374. The garage came back to the city in March 2019, still subject to the lease.
The garage took in about $320,000 in 2025, Thomas said: $118,548 in base rent from First Bristol, $66,215 from other monthly parkers such as the district attorney's office and the courts, and $135,804 from kiosks. Only the base rent can be counted on, he said, because the leaseholder can claim every space at any time. Using that rent, he put the garage's value at $1,265,520, near the city's fiscal 2026 assessment of $1,410,000. Fully repaired, he said, it would be worth about $633,000 more.
Selling would put the garage on the tax rolls and bring in about $120,000 in tax revenue the first year, Thomas said. He said the sale money and the repair money could instead go toward a new parking deck at the Third Street lot, about $30,000 a space, or a development there with four levels of parking and three stories of housing, with the city keeping rights to three parking levels for 50 years.
What councilors said
Council Vice President Michelle Dionne, who said she sat on the Redevelopment Authority at the time, said the authority returned the garages mainly because its members "just didn't want to be in the parking garage business anymore," and that money was only part of the reason. Councilor Shawn Cadime said he was the only councilor who voted against accepting the property with its current lease, and asked for an analysis of downtown's parking needs and economic development. Councilor Michael Canuel said a Third Street project could be weighed on its own merits without selling Pearl Street.
Council President Cliff Ponte asked about an appraisal the city paid for. Thomas said it valued the garage, fully repaired, at $4.2 million before subtracting $3.3 million for the below-market rent, leaving $900,000, and that it assumed parking at $125 a month, a rate he called unreasonable next to the $40 to $60 a month charged at garages in New Bedford and Taunton. Ponte noted that the presentation valued the garage using a 7.5% capitalization rate and said the sale price reflects a higher one.
What happens next
On a motion by Dionne, seconded by Councilor Christopher Peckham, the committee voted by voice to send the matter to the full council for referral to its Real Estate Committee. The council's next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. or right after the Committee on Finance, in the Council Chamber at One Government Center. The City Council office can be reached at 508-324-2233 or city_council@fallriverma.gov.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every figure, quote and step in the garage's history comes from the Fall River Government Television video of the Oct. 27 Committee on Finance meeting, as said there by the city's special counsel and by councilors; the item and its referral date come from the council's agenda, names and titles from the council's roster page, and the next meeting date from the clerk's 2026 schedule. The printed presentation given to councilors is not posted online. We read and checked them on Oct. 28. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar.
Corrections
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Sources (4)
- Fall River Government Television: 10.27.2026 Fall River City Council (Committee on Finance, Pearl Street garage presentation and questions)Published Oct. 27, 2026, 10:58 p.m. Presentation 0:44:46 to 1:05:41; questions to 2:07:09; referral vote 2:07:38. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- City of Fall River: City Council agenda packet, Oct. 27, 2026 (Committee on Finance item 2, the Pearl Street parking garage presentation, referred Oct. 13; council office letterhead)Clerk's stamp Oct. 23, 2026, 1:21 p.m. Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- City of Fall River: 2026-2027 City Council (names and titles)Read Oct. 28, 2026.
- City of Fall River, Office of the City Clerk: 2026 Committee on Finance and City Council meeting datesDated Jan. 15, 2026. Read Oct. 28, 2026.