Chicago to lease its marinas?

CHICAGO – Chicago city officials are considering leasing its marinas, managed by Westrec, to raise money following the success of its lease of the Skyway toll road, according to a June 2 article on Bloomberg.com.

The toll road was leased for $1.83 billion on a 99-year accord, reported Bloomberg. Though it isn’t clear how much could be raised by leasing the city’s nine marinas, totaling 1,500 slips, together they make up what the Web site calls North America’s largest municipal marina system.

Chicago CFO Dana Levinson told Bloomberg that the city has yet to determine whether a market exists for multi-decade leases of municipal marinas. Once the city has pursued other deals, it will study the issue, she suggested.

Given that the city is still early in its consideration of the idea, Westrec said it had no comment.

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