Parking Lot Agreement Hopes To Assist Development At Bank Of America Property

A parking sharing agreement approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission recently intends to provide assurances for any potential developers at the former Bank of America building on State Street.

The decision approves, with conditions, an agreement between the bank and Huntington Street Baptist Church for use of parking spaces in an off-street lot on Washington Street. 

The Bank of America branch at 250 State Street closed on Aug. 17 and the property is now on the market. The property includes lots at 25 and 29 Washington Street containing 42 parking spaces and the only off-street parking for the building.

Attorney William R. Sweeney said in a letter to commissioners that Bank of America has been actively promoting the property since closing the branch. However, he said a complication arose when church officials said they wished to exercise an option in a 1957 agreement allowing it to purchase a portion of the lot, including 12 parking spaces previously shared with the bank.

“The potential loss of use of these 12 parking spaces threatens to create an obstacle to the reuse and/or redevelopment of the State Street property,” Sweeney says in the letter.

Sweeney said he met with officials from the city and the church and that an agreement was negotiated to allow the use of the parking spaces by the State Street property from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. In exchange, the church would be granted the use of 13 additional parking spaces at 25 Washington Street on Sundays and evenings.

“We believe that the peak parking demand generated by the church and any future permitted commercial reuse of the State Street property is distinct and differs in principal operating hours, thereby allowing the utilization of the same parking spaces for both uses,” Sweeney said.

The Office of Development and Planning recommended that the commission approve the agreement with conditions, including addressing how it might affect a future developer's intent to be open outside the agreement's hours.

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