The Raleigh City Council voted 7-1 today to issue up to $26 million in certificates of participation (COPs) for a downtown parking deck.

The City will enter into a financing agreement with Walnut Creek Financing Assistance Corp. to facilitate the sale of the COPs. The team of Wells Fargo Securities and Davenport & Company will market the COPs.

Charter Square Developers is close to completing construction of a 553-space underground parking deck at Lenoir and Wilmington streets as part of its mixed-use development.

Under a development agreement between the City of Raleigh and Charter Square, the parking deck will be connected to the City's 958-space underground parking garage in the 500 block of Fayetteville Street. When the deck is completed this summer, the City will acquire the facility through a long-term capital lease agreement using proceeds from the sale of the COPs.

The City will use the deck for public parking.

Charter Square's planned mixed-use project will consist of two towers --- one 20-story tower and one 14-story tower that together will have 222 condominiums, 300,000 square feet of office space, 61,000 square feet of restaurant space, and ground-floor retail fronting Fayetteville and Wilmington streets.