City officials still are exploring options on how to finance the parking garage that will be part of the Centre City project.

PNC Bank representatives met with city council Tuesday night to explain the steps the city needs to take to finance the garage through a bond issue.

The bond issue presented by the representatives would be for about $4.5 million, which would be paid off over 25 years.

The parking garage will cost about $3.5 million, with the rest of the issue going to paying off current debts and other fees.

The move is necessary to pay for the parking garage, which in turn is necessary for the success of the proposed 75-room hotel project.

“If the parking doesn’t happen, the hotel doesn’t happen,” said Art Cordwell, the director of the city’s redevelopment authority.

The parking authority spends about $216,000 per year on its debt. Under the refinancing, the city would take control of that debt and add about $160,000 more per year to cover the parking garage.

The city is expecting to reach an agreement with the owners of the hotel that would guarantee a certain number of parking spaces be sold on a daily basis, which would account for an estimated $90,000 per year.

The city would have to make up the remaining difference through its designated parking spaces.

The current plans of the project have the parking garage with 225 spaces. The city will lose about 200 spaces that are in the area of the hotel, giving the project a net of about 25 spaces.

To make up the difference, council members said the city may have to examine raising parking rates in the proposed garage.

Council will vote Thursday to appoint PNC Bank as the city’s investment banker to get a credit rating. The estimated price to acquire a rating, which will be made by a third party firm, is $10,000. That fee will end up as part of the bond issue.

After getting a credit rating, the city would be able to move onto the next stage and receive estimates on interest rates of the bond issue.

City council also will vote on a reauthorization of the tax increment financing district for the Centre City project.

The city plans to reset the district terms to 20 years to get the full length of the plan.

Mayor Maggie Stock said nothing else will change.

“We’ve wasted nearly half of its life just talking,” Stock said of the district. “This will just enable us to get the full 20 years out of it.”

The Butler County commissioners are expected to vote today on the 20-year extension, and the Butler School Board also will have to vote on that as well.

The Centre City project will bring a Marriott Springhill Suites hotel and new Rite Aid Pharmacy downtown in addition to the parking garage.

Cordwell said he expects a groundbreaking on the project to occur in late October.

Rite Aid expects to start work on its building in November.