BCAR director presents ramp finances; council to send appointments to new authority without recommendation

At the Sept. 23 Committee on Community Development meeting, Sam Maracci, executive director of the Buffalo Civic Auto Resources (BCAR), detailed the finances of four city‑owned parking ramps and answered council questions about valuation, maintenance needs and the proposed authority that would oversee ramp transfers.

Maracci told the committee BCAR manages four city ramps totaling 5,203 spaces and said recent audited records show decades of payments to the city. He provided high‑level figures including insurance and replacement estimates, audited revenues and debt service details, and described how an authority would use bond proceeds to purchase and manage ramps.

"Taking the last 10 fiscal years, excluding the three COVID years, net income is $5,157,796," Maracci said, and he estimated, using a 9–10% capitalization rate, a present value range of roughly $51 million to $57 million for the ramps under an income approach. He also cited an insured replacement value of about $133,000,000 and a rough full replacement cost across the city ramps of approximately $152,000,000 using comparable per‑space costs from a recent campus garage.

Key figures and points Maracci gave to the committee: - Ramps managed by BCAR: 4 city…