Stonepeak pleads for meter deal as city council bristles

Stonepeak pleads – A New York investment firm trying to buy Chicago’s remaining parking meters faced a blunt, emotional hearing in City Hall—where alderpersons accused Mayor Brandon Johnson of secrecy, questioned the timing of a much larger bid, and demanded answers on how the c

James Wyper stepped into Thursday’s City Council hearing with a waiver and a number—then walked straight into the anger that has defined Chicago’s parking meter fight for months.

The New York investment firm Stonepeak Partners is seeking to acquire Chicago’s parking meters. but the Finance Committee meeting quickly turned into a confrontation over process. Wyper. a senior managing director at Stonepeak Partners. sided with council members pressing Mayor Brandon Johnson “out of hiding” at the start of the hearing.

Wyper tried to win favor by saying Stonepeak had waived a nondisclosure agreement Johnson had used to shield himself from questions about a bid Johnson submitted—then abandoned—to take back the 36. 000 parking meters that Mayor Richard M. Daley famously unloaded in 2008. Wyper also told the committee that the Johnson administration offered the current owners of the city’s meters—Morgan Stanley. Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi—$3.3 billion to buy back the meters.

That figure, Wyper said, would be triple the $1.15 billion Chicago received from the 75-year lease in 2008, and it would be $800 million more than the $2.53 billion bid Stonepeak submitted.

Johnson. earlier this year. had announced that City Hall dropped out of the competition after determining that the asking price “would have made a bad deal even worse.” Wyper framed the city’s bid as “imprudent given what we know about” Chicago’s precarious finances. adding that the city’s bid would have been financed by “municipal bonds funded against the city’s cash-flow stream.”.

“We were very surprised. We assumed for some time that the city wasn’t interested or capable of raising that quantity or magnitude of funds,” Wyper told the Finance Committee.

The hearing also surfaced the council’s timeline and growing sense of betrayal. At least 22 City Council members sent a letter to Johnson on June 8 saying they planned to reject the sale after accusing the mayor of withholding critical information from the council. and secretly agreeing to a June 30 deadline to authorize the transaction. That deadline has since been postponed until July 24.

Some alderpersons were furious to learn that Johnson had submitted a bid that dwarfed Stonepeak’s—without telling council members.

Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) said Johnson’s move came when the council was “fighting for every penny and loose quarter, and looking under every couch cushion” to close a budget gap. Lee called the approach offensive.

“No transparency. No conversation with the Council. The heart of the problem that we’re having here is the lack of transparency and, I won’t even say degrading of trust. There isn’t any,” Lee said. “To put this before the Council with a decision this big — it’s really offensive.”

Wyper attempted to soften the blow by focusing on parts of the deal that determine whether taxpayers feel the pain for years. One requirement in the widely disliked arrangement would force the city to compensate Chicago Parking Meters LLC—the private investment consortium formed by Morgan Stanley. Allianz and Sovereign Wealth—for every parking space taken out of service for a special event or construction project.

Wyper promised an “open line of communication” aimed at working with the city to reduce or even eliminate those annual payments. He cited the cost to taxpayers: those annual payments topped $13 million in 2025 and have totaled $41.4 million since January 2019. Wyper argued the city has repeatedly failed to pursue options that could limit payments.

“That has not existed historically and does not exist today. It is crazy that. time and again. the city has not availed itself of the myriad existing abilities to avoid true-up payments. ” Wyper said. “Correctly managed. we should be in tight dialogue about what the city wants. how we can better deliver that under the existing concession. and how we can help you all look good.”.

The pitch didn’t land evenly, and it ran into another flashpoint: Stonepeak’s 2025 acquisition of Omni Air International, a business Wyper linked to “long haul” deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement campaign.

Wyper acknowledged the anger directly. “The activities of ICE under the current administration could not be more abhorrent,” he said. He then described his personal connection to the issue. saying he has “direct family who is a Latin American. asylum-seeking immigrant in this country. ” whose parents “could not come visit. ” and he said he was “personally disappointed and apologize” that Stonepeak created a situation “in which nobody wins.”.

“This is not the business we bought. “In documents provided to the City Council, Stonepeak has said it “continues to evaluate all other contractual and strategic alternatives available with regards to Omni, including the sale of our Omni subsidiary or its business with ICE.”

Still, for some alderpersons, the promise of future review felt inadequate. Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), co-chair of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus, told Wyper to stop.

“Spare me the bleeding heart routine,” Vasquez said. “I’m trying to understand why … you all haven’t just ended any contracts and any association if you hope to have a conversation, because for a sizable contingent of this Council, it is a non-starter to even talk about,” he added.

As the four-hour hearing neared its end, Wyper apologized for what he called the “political situation” now confronting a council that must decide whether to accept or reject the sale of the remaining 58 years of the deal that Chicagoans love to hate. He said the process had been mishandled.

“The way that it has all played out is the worst possible way. You all have not been informed adequately,” Wyper said. “This is obviously an asset that has been controversial for quite some time. … There is general consensus for how that played out for the city. … We’re trying to buy some parking meters. We didn’t want you to take some heat. … I’m personally disappointed and apologize … that we created a situation in which nobody wins.”.

Not everyone in the room was unmoved. Finance Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) said the meeting left her with a clearer view of the transaction.

“It was enlightening — not just on the proposed transfer but on the process,” Dowell said. “I’m heartened that there seems to be an openness for how we can make this better for the taxpayers.”

Chicago parking meters Stonepeak Partners Brandon Johnson City Council Finance Committee Pat Dowell Nicole Lee Andre Vasquez Morgan Stanley Allianz Capital Partners Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi Chicago Parking Meters LLC