City officials said Thursday that repairing a city parking lot on King Street wound up costing over half a million dollars.
The final bill was $504,904.
That was an overrun from the initial bid of $440,000, plus a $40,000 contingency.
Members of a city board were told that was because of additional landscaping and design work related to ADA compliance.
The Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corporation approved the overrun and had to make a budget amendment because of it.
The City Council in 2016 declared the lot “surplus,” even though it was used for parking by city employees.
The CDRC went through an RFP process to sell the lot, then was prepared to sell the property in 2017 to the neighboring private developers at a price that was less than what the city had paid for the property in 2007.
After criticism of that deal, the developers later agreed to pay a higher amount based on an appraisal.
Developer Hiren Desai later rescinded the offer and the RFP was withdrawn.
Last year, city staff advised the CDRC that the parking lot was causing flooding in the adjacent warehouse building owned by the developers. The board then authorized spending up to $480,000 in public funds to pave the parking lot and correct the drainage problem.