Eleven teams of investors and parking operators want a shot at leasing Pittsburgh's public garages, meters and lots, suggesting a vigorous competition for the potential nine-figure deal, according to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration.

The teams include national and international companies, some with experience handling parking systems much larger than the 18,000 total spaces that the Pittsburgh Parking Authority is offering. Some have local ties.

"There's a lot of capital out there looking for the right investments," said city Finance Director Scott Kunka, who also chairs the parking authority board. The healthy number of firms submitting qualifications by a late-Friday deadline suggests "that there's a convergence between the needs of the city, the needs of the private sector, and the benefits sought by the [parking consumers]."

"It shows that people are willing to invest in Pittsburgh," said Mark Halleman, senior consultant for Nexus Infrastructure of Washington, D.C., who has roots in the area and is not involved in the lease deal. "Pittsburgh obviously is very attractive to the industry, and that will be indicated by the number of proposals."

Now the authority and its advisers will sort through firms' qualifications and invite some or all to submit bids in mid-June for a lease that is expected to control rate increases, technological upgrades, and repair and reconstruction of parking facilities for decades.

Mr. Ravenstahl proposed a parking lease to raise money for the city's wobbly pension fund in January 2009. He's hoping for an upfront payment of more than $300 million, enough to pay off the authority's debt and leave at least $200 million for the pension fund, which might otherwise face state takeover.

City Council isn't sold on the idea, and that body is commissioning a study on the garages and several other options for solving the pension shortfall.

Mr. Kunka didn't release names of the firms who submitted their qualifications Friday, saying that most of the interested teams consisted of a parking operator and one or more investment firms. Several firms, though, have been getting the lay of the land locally and were believed to have put their names and resumes into the mix by Friday.

New York-based LambdaStar Infrastructure Partners has been meeting with people involved with the parking authority for around a year.

The LambdaStar partner working on the Pittsburgh lease is Leonard Shaykin, a veteran of the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s, in which managers of large companies bought their firms using borrowed money backed by expected future earnings. He's bought and led the Chicago Sun-Times, Revlon, Joy Technologies and other companies. He could not be reached for comment.

LambdaStar was the financial force behind a winning $215 million bid last year to lease Harrisburg's public parking garages for 75 years. That city's council balked at approving the deal, but budget woes have spurred renewed talk of inking the lease.

LambdaStar markets itself as union-friendly, typically promising to respect labor contracts and use union workers for garage repair and reconstruction. It is expected to partner with Hartford, Conn.-based LAZ Parking, a growing firm that operates Chicago's privatized garages and meters.

Australia-based Macquarie Group, said to be mulling a bid, wouldn't comment on the Pittsburgh process Friday. The firm has been investing in infrastructure and utilities since 1996, including a stake in Duquesne Light and full ownership of the Penn Terminals marine yard near Philadelphia.

Alinda Capital Partners, which bills itself as the largest American manager of pension investments in infrastructure, also was expected to join the competition.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley won't bid because it is running the lease process for the parking authority, for a fee of at least $3 million if a deal is done.

The Spanish firm Cintra, which "dominates the car park sector" in Spain, according to its website, was expected to submit qualifications. The firm's other specialty is privatizing toll roads, with stakes in 23 of them in Europe, Canada and the U.S.

At least one parking operator, Philadelphia-based Parkway Corp., sent in its resume in hopes of connecting with a financial partner later in the process. "I have good people in the city," said Parkway President Robert Zuritsky. "We're going to throw our hat in the ring and see where it falls."

The city's biggest name in parking is sitting out the lease process.

"If I'm a part of it, that just makes it even more complicated," said Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking, which owns or manages lots Downtown, on the North Shore and in the airport area. Given his already significant share, any effort to lease the public garages and meters could raise fears of market domination, he said. Plus his garages are now nonunion, while the public system is unionized, so trying to combine those operations could prove contentious.

"I do think this [lease] could be a good thing for the city, if it's done correctly," he said, adding that he thinks the city needs new Downtown garages in the Cultural District, Fifth/Forbes corridor and on Grant Street.

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