CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Through a deal with Millan Holdings for naming rights and an operating agreement, Montgomery County may end up not having to use any county money to build the F&M Bank Arena parking garage.

“If we come in just a little under budget, we could potentially have zero county funds in this project, which would be amazing,” Mayor Wes Golden said this week on the Clarksville Now podcast Clarksville Conversations.

The 511-space parking garage is under construction at College and First Streets, between the DoubleTree By Hilton Clarksville Riverview and the arena.

How we got here

In May 2022, the State of Tennessee granted Montgomery County $14 million to build the garage.

“When we got all the numbers in on construction, we figured we would need to borrow another $14 million for construction,” Golden said. He got permission from the County Commission to borrow up to that amount.

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In December 2023, ownership of the property was transferred to the Montgomery County Industrial Development Board to build the garage, and the IDB has been working to enter into a lease with a private company to manage it. Leasing out management is necessary because the IDB isn’t set up to manage or maintain a parking facility, and Montgomery County doesn’t have a parking authority, such as the one created by the City of Clarksville.

“It takes care of a management issue that we had, so now we have somebody to manage it and somebody to take care of the long-term maintenance on it,” Golden said.

How the deal works

For the management partner, on Jan. 8 the IDB selected Millan Holdings, affiliated with Millan Enterprises, owned by Leo Millan (pron. “mee-yahn”). Millan Enterprises owns several downtown properties and is in the process of building the 10-story Millan Center nearby at Jefferson and North First Street.

Millan will pay the IDB up to $5 million to complete construction of the garage, according to the agreement. Under the terms of the 40-year lease, Millan will have naming rights to the garage, will manage parking operations and maintenance, and will receive all parking revenues.

With this agreement, the garage will be completed with no leveraged financing from Montgomery County or the IDB, according to a statement from the IDB.

The name of the garage has not yet been announced. It’s expected to open in June this year.

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