City council members approved the sale of $6.5 million in parking revenue bonds, as one of the first necessary steps in the long process of building a parking deck for the entertainment district in Fayetteville, officials said.

“You don’t start a design [and] you don’t pick a location unless you have construction money,” said Don Marr, Fayetteville chief of staff. “Once you have the authorization, you can do these other things.”

The proposed parking deck has been talked about for years, since Marr was an elected aldermen in the early 2000s, he said.

“When planning for the future of downtown, we must be sure to plan for an adequate supply of parking to accommodate future growth and development,” according to Fayetteville’s “Downtown Master Plan,” written in winter 2004.

“As a part of the ‘Downtown Master Plan,’ we need a parking structure in order to free up the existing space that we have for future developments,” said council member Matthew Petty.

When Mayor Lioneld Jordan set up paid parking on Dickson, he said that, in one year, a plan would begin for the proposed parking deck, and August 16th marked one year, Marr said.

“I think it’s time to start,” Petty said, “but we need to be deliberate and not rush.”

With the approval of the bonds, the city council has established a project fund for the parking deck and the determination to move forward with the project, said finance director Paul Becker.

Although the sale of the bonds is necessary in pushing the project further, with a project fund of this size, there are certain risks, such as the project not being able to be completed or continued, Becker said.

Inflationary risks threaten the building of the parking deck, and although  city officials have not seen inflation in some time, it will eventually, Becker said.

If interest rates increase 0.25 percent, the project fund would be reduced by $200,000, Becker said.

This risk reinforces reason for the city to approve the sale of the bonds now, so the project will begin as soon as possible. “If it takes you seven months to design, and the interest rate goes up one and a quarter points, you just dropped your construction [funds by] $1 million,” Marr said.

The process of building the deck can be separated into preliminary, design and construction phases that will take months, said the utilities director, David Jurgens.

The city has already begun advertising for a request for qualifications for design professionals that will assist in formulating preliminary costs and narrowing down the possibilities for location after initial assessments, Jurgens said.

City officials hope to receive proposals this month, and a selection committee will interview the candidates and make a decision in January, Jurgens said.

The city will then have to wait possibly until late February to receive preliminary assessments and design costs to eliminate any potential sites that would just not work for the city’s needs, Jurgens said.

The design professionals will then focus on the remaining sites for three to four months, assessing the future construction and asking for public input, Jurgens said.

“I don’t care if it’s built above ground, below ground or in the clouds with an escalator. I think we need it,” said council member Justin Tennant.

Once the site is selected by the council in either June or July, it will be about four months before a contract is awarded for construction, Jurgens said.