D'Alessio told Council on Feb. 24, 1982, that "in the early years" of its operation the garage might lose money, and if that happened the city "might have to put some money in" to cover losses. He did not indicate the amount of those potential losses, but said that "the return down the road (on the garage) is an incredible amount of money."
The official $15.5 million bond issue prepared two weeks earlier painted a much more graphic picture of the financial dangers in the project:
"Such funding by the City (to cover deficits) is anticipated to be required over a considerable number of years and . . . is expected to be substantial."
Because Parametric Garage Associates, the firm that owns the garage, is recording losses of about $3.3 million a year, the city is required to cover the firm's debt service - interest and principal - on the bond issue.
By August of this year, the city will have provided nearly $7 million out of its operating budget - almost as much money as it cost for the materials and labor to build the garage - for that debt service. And the city is legally obligated to cover the garage's bond payments until at least 1996.
After the garage was completed in September 1983, the Reading Co. bought out the four general partners in the project and then sold shares in it to Philadelphia-area millionaires.
Those millionaire investors have been able to write off the garage's losses while the city pays for a portion of those losses, documents obtained by the Daily News show.
Reading was identified as a limited partner of Parametric Garage Associates in the bill Council passed authorizing the city's debt service guarantee. But some former top city officials say they had no idea that Reading was even involved in the garage firm, let alone had syndicated it as a tax shelter.
"We didn't have to put up a dime. It was the best deals I ever made," said former Reading vice president William R. Dimeling.
