Editorial: Chicago, meet Stonepeak Partners. Stonepeak Partners meet a Chicago that's ticked off about your big parking meter deal.

Stonepeak Partners, which looks set to own all of Chicago’s parking meter revenue until many of us will be in our graves, might not have crossed your radar before.

Private Equity generally doesn’t like publicity. As as sector, it has mastered the art of not returning calls if at all possible. That probably explains why Stonepeak, which is headquartered in the hip New York neighborhood of Hudson Yards and has $88 billion in assets under its management, did not return the call of a Tribune reporter this week who was exploring what might happen in City Council Wednesday when that august and we hope, deeply irritated body debates whether or not to approve the sale of what, to paraphrase the words of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, was the most incompetent fiscal act of municipal (mis)governance in the history of municipal governments.

We’ve written about the Chicago parking meter debacle, which has been so calamitous for our city, on severalprioroccasions, including the issue before us now, which is whether or not City Council should approve the sale by the prior owners, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, who have already made bank. Oh, have they made bank!

We won’t make you suffer through the agonizing details of this deal from hell again, although we could and are sorely tempted. We’ll just note, for the umpteenth time, that the 2008 deal netted the city about $1.15 billion in return for the future revenue from those 36,000 parking meters. Chicago Parking Meters LLC (a group led by Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi) had already more than recouped its entire initial investment heading into year 18 of the 75-year lease. So with hundreds of millions of profit already in the bank and more than five decades still to go, the lucky group of investors who played the Daley administration for fools has decided to sell. And since both the original and the renegotiated deal give the city the right to approve that sale, we know in advance the name of the buyer: Stonepeak.

We don’t hold out a lot of hope for what might happen in City Council, which will have the matter introduced on Wednesday and then will have to decide how to proceed. As we read the clause at issue, the council (not the mayor, interestingly, who doesn’t have approval authority for a sale like this under the deal) could just say, no, Chicago Parking Meters LLC already took us to the cleaners and we’re not going to let them monetize what’s left on this contract. (Because, after all, the men making the decisions for the current meter owners all will be dead, too, once this deal runs its course and presumably would rather count their money now.)

We’d understand why the council would make that choice on an emotional or moral level. Lawsuits would surely ensue, and that same lousy original deal still would be in place. Still, we’d be cheering such a move.

More realistic, though, would be to try and impose some kind of conditions on the sale and that would mean City Council holding onto its leverage and rapidly getting on the same internal page in terms of the asks.

We have a whole menu, including eliminating the egregious convenience fee that comes with every transaction and time addition, sold initially as a way to pay for the parking app, which is now ubiquitous in the industry. Or no longer charging city taxpayers those egregious and unrealistic “true up” fees when the city holds street festivals and permits outdoor dining places (the current owners sued, just cause they wanted yet more money from us). Or giving us Sundays as a day off. Or helping the Loop by reducing those usurious evening parking rates that confound theater and concert goers and undermine our arts audiences. We think whatever benefit is negotiated should benefit all Chicagoans who have been paying these parking fees, not one particular group or some unrelated entity.

So, today, we are addressing Stonepeak Partners, which has a lovely website wherein it says: “We invest in the infrastructure that underpins our daily lives.” That, of course, does not describe this deal, which actually does the opposite to our minds.

That website says further: “Our track record is founded on investing in essential infrastructure that delivers enduring social utility,” but, in fact, this deal does precisely the opposite.

It has zero social utility to our minds.

That website says yet further: “We seek out opportunities to create value for our investors while also seeking to actively drive positive long-term outcomes for our environment and communities.”

A positive long-term outcome from that parking deal? For investors, no doubt. For Chicago? You’ve got to be kidding us.

Let’s be clear. We don’t blame Stonepeak Partners, which is led by billionaire Michael Dorrell, former senior managing director in private equity and co-head of the infrastructure investment group at private-equity giant Blackstone, for this deal. Stonepeak did not create this monstrosity. And, in fairness, it now assumes some risks, principally that of the city defaulting on its obligations and thus this deal becoming null and void and also that autonomous vehicles will significantly reduce future demand for street parking. And, frankly, if we needed another reason to be supportive of Waymo and its ilk in this city, here is that reason.

But Stonepeak has chosen to associate itself with a deal made by the demonstrably incompetent on behalf of the people and loathed by pretty much every Chicagoan - every politician, every business leader, every person at the end of a Chicago tavern, we meet. Unlike many other transactions it does, Stonepeak won’t enjoy quiet anonymity with this one as it rakes in our hard-earned cash for decades.

We’d like to see Stonepeak be proactive here. Show up and talk to the council. Come up with some concessions to show us you will be a better citizen than Chicago Parking Meters, LLC. Give us a break as you vacuum our parking fees and show us you also will invest in this city’s economic growth.

Simply put, prove to us that you are willing to live up to that lofty rhetoric on your own website.

Otherwise, given the perilous financial state of this city, that five decades of cha-ching may not last as long as you are hoping.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 5:12 AM.