RTD has been touting the 1,800 parking spaces it will have to serve the Arapahoe train station when southeast light-rail service starts Nov. 17.
But 1,000 of those spaces – the ones closest to the train platform – have been leased from a private developer, who will charge rail riders for the parking service.
The private spaces are in a facility controlled by developer John Madden. The facility has served the nearby Coors Amphitheater in the past.
Four years ago, as the Regional Transportation District was planning the southeast line, RTD agreed to pay Madden about $1.7 million to preserve the extra 1,000 parking spaces for the southeast line. Madden’s lot is located on the west side of Interstate 25, near the train platform, just north of East Arapahoe Road.
The lease, which runs for 75 years, allows Madden’s business improvement district to charge RTD transit users, but the parking fees are to be 10 percent below “market rates” for the area, based on surveys.
Regardless of the market, Madden will not be required to charge less than $2.50 a day, or $5 for evenings and weekends, according to the lease.
On Monday RTD officials said Madden’s district is interested in redeveloping the parking property and is offering to buy out the transit agency’s interest in the lease for about $2 million. That covers the $1.7 million RTD has paid to date plus 5 percent interest per year.
RTD’s directors will take up the buy-back offer at a board meeting next week, but director O’Neill Quinlan said Monday he doesn’t want to give up any parking capacity along the southeast line until the agency can assess total demand for spaces.
“I think we will need the parking,” Quinlan said of the extra spaces at Arapahoe. By April RTD should know if it has enough parking to satisfy demand, he said.
The other 800 parking spaces serving the Arapahoe station are in a garage on the east side of I-25. RTD customers using the garage will have to cross a pedestrian bridge over the highway to get to the train platform.
In all, RTD has about 7,500 parking spaces at southeast rail stations. With the exception of the 1,000 privately leased spaces, all the RTD lots will be free.
Officials expect the southeast line to handle about 34,000 passenger trips a day.
When the southwest light rail line to Littleton opened six years ago, RTD discovered that it had severely underestimated demand for parking.
RTD General Manager Cal Marsella said the agency still doesn’t have enough spaces on the southwest line. He added: “It seems we never hit the upper end of parking demand.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or at jleib@denverpost.com.
