Maintenance, utility costs at Innovista facilities increase
USC's Innovista parking garages brought in more money in the 2011 fiscal year than in 2010, but the increase isn't enough to cover the continued costs of a project mired in debt.
Last year, the Horizon and Discovery garages generated $535,301 in revenue, a 19-percent increase over the year prior, according to an audit of the facilities' finances by Elliott Davis, a Southeastern accounting firm.
But that wasn't enough to cover the $1,338,854 it cost to operate the garages and pay interest on their loans.
USC picked up the bill for most of the difference, spending $958,268, which is down 14 percent from the price the university paid in the 2010 fiscal year, according to the audit document.
Ed Walton, the university's chief financial officer, did not respond to an email Wednesday and was not available for a phone interview that afternoon.
While the garages made more money last year, the cost of their operation, excluding the depreciation of their value, saw an uptick as well — up 23 percent to $362,461.
Some of that increase was tied to the rising cost of utilities (up 19 percent), but much was caused by a sharp spike in the cost of "services and supplies," which jumped 94 percent to $113,727 last year.
The Daily Gamecock made numerous phone calls and sent emails to Derrick Huggins, USC's associate vice president for transportation and logistical relations, Wednesday to comment on the increase, but he did not respond by press time.
Andrew Sloan, the city of Columbia's parking facilities administrator, who manages the maintenance of city-owned garages, said those "services and supplies" were likely the chemicals and equipment USC uses to clean the facilities.
"There's the cleaning supplies for the garage itself; if they sweep their own garages, they have to keep up their equipment, buy new brushes for their sweepers. I don't know if USC might contract their sweeping out," Sloan said. "The way gas and everything is right now, it goes up ... I know they're like us; they don't keep [the garages] up very well, because it takes money, and money's hard to find."
Sloan also suggested the cost could have increased if USC started pressure washing the garages or undertook relighting projects on the garages.
Columbia relights its facilities at most every 10 years, he said, but hasn't realistically in the last 18 to 20 years. The Discovery and Horizon garages opened in fall 2008 and spring 2009, respectively.
At a meeting Friday of the board of trustee's audit and compliance committee, Tom McNeish, of the accounting firm Elliott Davis, reiterated that USC is continuing to work toward making the garages profitable and is one year into a seven-year plan that would bring them into the black. Much of that plan hinges on new growth and construction in the areas surrounding the facilities, including the new Moore School of Business building.
"A lot of this is going to depend on, clearly, selling spots," McNeish said at the meeting. "A lot of that is going to be predicated on development downtown and whether or not buildings are leased in the environment we're in. Certainly that contributes to the shortfall in cash flow."