Midland council voted 5-0 Monday on a $50,000 sale of the city’s Larkin parking deck share

MIDLAND, Mich. — Midland City Council voted 5-0 Monday night to sell the city’s two-thirds share of the downtown Larkin Parking Deck for $50,000 to the investors redeveloping the former Chemical Bank buildings, two weeks after members put the deal on hold over its price, the Midland Daily News reported.

The sale was item 6 on the agenda for the council’s 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 333 W. Ellsworth St. Because the resolution waived sealed bids, it needed a four-fifths vote to pass, according to the city manager’s summary report. All five members present voted for it, the Daily News reported.

The buyer is Midland Main ST Investments LLC. Draft minutes of the Sept. 28 meeting in the council packet show Patrick Pnacek spoke as the potential purchaser. After discussion of the deck’s value, council tabled the sale on a motion by Councilman Dave Pasek, seconded by Councilman Tim Soler, until staff could bring back more valuation details.

In an Oct. 7 letter to Mayor Maureen Donker and the council, City Manager C. Bradley Kaye wrote that the deal is best understood as an economic development partnership, not an arm’s-length sale. The buyer plans ground-floor commercial space and upper-floor apartments in the former bank properties, plus brownstone-style housing, and has told the city it needs designated parking to sign tenants, the letter says. Kaye called the deck’s weekday use light and said even busy weekend events rarely come close to filling it.

Kaye’s memo offers three ways to value the city’s stake. The city’s share of the deck’s original construction cost was $1,413,000; on a standard 39-year depreciation schedule, its net book value today is $108,692. An income-based approach puts the structure at zero, leaving the city’s share of the land, assessed at $258,000 in total, at about $172,000. On cash flow, the memo says the city loses about $22,000 a year running the deck. Staff projects that selling would leave the city and its Downtown Development Authority $138,656 ahead after five years and $573,793 ahead after 20, from new property taxes and an end to those losses.

Under the offer, the buyer would honor all current parking leases and renew Delta College’s parking for at least five years under a separate letter of intent. Huntington Bank keeps its one-third ownership, including the third floor. About $325,000 in the condominium association’s maintenance fund stays with the association, and Kaye wrote that roughly $250,000 in needed repairs remains unfunded.

The resolution adds one condition that is not in the written offer: if the buyer ever walks away from the deck, it must be offered back to the city at no cost on a right-of-first-refusal basis.

Also on Monday’s agenda were a second reading of an ordinance renaming the Neighborhood Commercial zoning district as Neighborhood Center and an ordinance setting up the General Employees Retirement System’s defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The council approved the sale 5-0 on Monday night, per the Midland Daily News. This story was written before the vote, and its headline and meeting language have been changed to the past tense. Read our story on the vote.

Updated Oct. 15, 2026: Replaced an AI-generated illustration with a licensed file photograph of a downtown parking deck.

Sources:
Midland Daily News / Michigan’s Thumb, “City Council unanimously backs Larkin Parking Deck sale,” Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.michigansthumb.com/community/article/midland-city-council-larkin-parking-deck-sale-22474367.php
City of Midland, Regular City Council Meeting agenda packet, Oct. 12, 2026 (Sept. 28 draft minutes, summary report, City Manager’s Oct. 7 letter, purchase offer and resolution), https://www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10122026-3164
City of Midland, Calendar, “Regular City Council Meeting,” Oct. 12, 2026, https://www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=6953
Photo: Chris857, “Houghton Michigan parking deck,” Sept. 12, 2018, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Houghton_Michigan_parking_deck.jpg

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