#mess #resolve #criticized #parking #concession
In a commune like Vitacura, which has more cars than people, the availability of street parking becomes especially important. Even more so in an area where the average reaches three cars per house.
With that in mind, the tender that the Municipality of Vitacura awarded in 2007 arose, which required the concessionaire build underground parking in Plaza Lo Castillo, granting in exchange the exploitation of the surface parking in Alonso de Córdova. The concessionaire also had the option, under certain conditions, of propose a project to build and operate underground parking on the same avenue.
However, anomalies both in the basis and in the execution of the project produced indignation among residents, generating complaints of irregularities and culminating in the early termination of the tender.
A highly beneficial tender
In March 2022, the cost of one hour of parking in Alonso de Córdova amounted to $2,400 pesos. Two hours reached $4,800 and three hours reached $7,200.
These rates were possible thanks to the tender awarded by the Public Limited Company “Conceso Estacionamientos Municipales de Vitacura SA” during the management of Raúl Torrealba. The project, according to sources consulted, in practice did not benefit either the neighbors or the municipality.
For the exploitation in the Alonso de Córdova axis, the Concessionaire had to pay a monthly amount of $2,500,000 to the Municipality of Vitacura, as reported by the same municipality.
This type of “lease” of the land could be collected by the company in about four hours, if it kept 100% of the parking lots full, a situation that is common in that area with high traffic congestion.
However, the concessionaire’s utopia came to an end when the same Municipal Council, together with the current mayor Camila Merino (Evópoli), unanimously agreed to put a tombstone on the section of the agreement that focused on the Alonso de Córdova axis, consequence of “breach of contract”.
Despite this, there is part of the contract that was fulfilled and according to the tender, it would be valid until 2047: the construction and use of the Plaza Lo Castillo underground parking lots. Without a rate cap, the concession currently charges $52 pesos per minute.
But these abnormally beneficial conditions for the concessionaire were not what triggered the termination of the contract.
It all started in 2021, when councilor Felipe Irarrázaval (RN) went to the Comptroller General of the Republic and requested that the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) review possible violations of the defense law for free competition.
According to what was reported by the communal authority, there was not only non-compliance with established deadlines in the Bases of the Contract, but The concessionaire also made irregular modifications to the controversial “Zoccalo Project” of underground parking in Alonso de Córdova. With support from the municipality itself, the work was modified, moving away from the initial project and incorporating a shopping center.
This alteration was the last straw for neighbors and tenants, who grouped together in the Alonso De Córdova-Nueva Costanera Association to, together with Councilor Irarrázaval and Mayor Merino, denounce the violations and stop the project.
The various legal actions presented reveal irregularities on the part of both the concessionaire and the municipality led by Torrealba, who was formalized in 2023 for fraud against the Treasury, tax crimes, money laundering and illicit association.
Today, the final decision on the legality of terminating the contract with the concessionaire is in the hands of the Supreme Court.
“Unregulated monopoly”
Since its inception, the tender awarded by the concessionaire in 2007—represented by Arturo Mariano Valle and José Miguel Cabrerizo—had unusual and highly beneficial conditions for the company: the lack of a rate ceiling to charge clients and a concession duration of 40 years.
This first point is what today allows the concessionaire to charge $52 pesos per minute to those who choose to park in Plaza Lo Castillo (with the exception of those who buy over a certain amount at the Jumbo supermarket). Indeed, one hour of parking today costs $3,120, 16% more than in the same month last year.
Setting an unchangeable maximum price is essential to protect users from possible abuses., according to parameters established by the Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC). Something that did not happen with the bases of the “Concession for the Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Underground and Surface Parking Lots in the Commune of Vitacura.”
However, today the municipality charges $25 pesos per minute in the area of the tender taken from the concessionaire, well below the $40 that the company charged in the axis between Av. Américo Vespucio and Av. Bicentenario.
The second irregularity points to the duration of the tender. According to the bases approved on July 21, 2006, the concession period is four decades from the approval of the contract; that is to say, The concessionaire could operate the parking lots in Vitacura until 2047.
However, to protect free competition, a tender should not last more than 30 years, according to the court specializing in the matter.
This was reported in the appeal submitted to the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) by Councilor Irarrázaval, assisted by lawyers Juan Ignacio Correa and Juan Francisco Sánchez.
For example, the tender for the Saba parking lots in the commune of Providencia—which today charges $53 pesos per minute—has a duration of exactly three decades.
These two factors, according to the councilor’s appeal, would cause the tender issued by the municipality to fall into a “deregulated monopoly.”
Zoccalo, a project “between four walls”
“A picture is worth a thousand words”. With that phrase Irarrázaval argued the evident modification in the initial underground parking project, with the design that had been advertised for the “Zoccalo”, accompanied by the design of the project, advertised (and later deleted) by the Instagram of the architecture firm Amunátegui Barreau.
The new project presented by the concessionaire not only divided the Alonso de Córdova axis into three sections, addressing only one of them; but It also added a commercial space equivalent to 5,045 square meters, which was not part of the work initially tendered.
The controversial proposal also intended to include commercial premises and restaurants, a supermarket and even a gym, and had been allowed thanks to an internal memorandum from the municipality.
It was at this point that the owners of restaurants and art galleries, along with other neighbors, obtained the new plans through transparency requests and organized to put a pause on the project that had been approved “between four walls,” according to what they denounced. at the time.
In that sense, they stated that the changes violated the objective of the tender to decongest the area. For the same reason, they emphasized that There is no point in creating more parking if, along with it, the flow increases with the expansion of the commercial offer.
The work would not only harm the tenants, but also possible competitors, according to the appeal filed by Valenzuela.
The municipality should have opened a new tender, he argues, since it was strictly speaking a new project, which would also generate “additional fixed income that could reach up to 121,080 UF annually (about $4.5 billion), versus 76,538 UF annually ($2.8 billion) for “parking meter concept”.
This produced a new “situation of advantage” towards the concessionaire over other possible applicants.
Luis Cordero’s claim
The appeal accuses that the municipality would be giving over 5,000 square meters free of charge to the concessionaire, in a commune where the m² costs between 85 to 120 UF.
The problem with the project not only lies in the modifications, but also in the violation of the deadlines, of which “there is no record that the municipality has taken concrete actions to sanction such non-compliance,” according to the councilor’s action.
According to the bases, the right to propose a work for underground parking in Alonso de Córdova would expire “after ten years, counted from the date of this instrument” (April 26, 2007). From this, the company would have 36 months to begin exploitation.
The deadlines were not met and on March 18, 2022, the Vitacura Municipal Council voted unanimously to terminate the contract with the concessionaire early. However, the counterparty filed a claim of illegality, under the legal advice of the FerradaNehme firm and, specifically, the lawyer and current Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, who subsequently took office in March 2023.
The claim, which alludes to technicalities to debate the beginning of the discussed period, was accepted by the Court of Appeals and on November 23, 2023 it reached the highest level of discussion, the Supreme Court.
However, as part of the process to try to settle the dispute, this April 17 the municipality published the new tender for the operation and maintenance of Alonso de Córdova parking lots.
