Toledo City Council paved the way today for ProMedica to move forward with plans to move its headquarters into a downtown waterfront campus.

Council voted 11-1 during its regular meeting to authorize a memorandum of understanding with the health-care company that lays out a series of incentives that include conveying part of Promenade Park to build an up to six-story parking garage, real-estate and income-tax abatements, and infrastructure improvements.

Councilman Jack Ford cast the lone no vote. He attempted to explain his vote but was cut off by others on council who were continuing a roll call of the vote. Mr. Ford earlier said he would request amendments to require ProMedica to guarantee a percentage of the jobs it is promising and to ensure that minority contractors get a share of the work from the $40 million to $60 million project. He did not push for those changes today.

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins and officials from the health-care company completed the agreement on Jan. 5 – a year after the company announced it had a $40 million plan to renovate the century-old Toledo Edison Steam Plant and move downtown into that building and the adjacent KeyBank Building. A YMCA branch would be located on the first floor of the new headquarters. It later revealed plans to build a parking structure in the southwest quadrant of Promenade Park.

The parking garage would be available for public use on weekends and nonbusiness hours for downtown events, according to the memorandum of agreement.

Robin Whitney, ProMedica’s vice president of property acquisition and development, said the company would pay $20 million to construct the parking garage, with financing from the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority being one possible option.

Ms. Whitney said ProMedica has a minority business plan for the project but it is not ready to release details.

The company will receive the park land at no cost, along with property north of the former steam plant that now is an amphitheater area south of the Imagination Station science museum. The city will also vacate the Water Street dead end north of Madison Avenue and an unbuilt stub of Madison east of Water.

The company agreed to spend $2 million to “restore and improve Promenade Park and the parking site,” according to the agreement. Of that, $1.5 million would be spent to restore the parkland disturbed by building the underground section, which would extend under the park. The remaining $500,000 would be used for improving the rest of the park.

The city is obligated to add lighting, irrigation, and public restrooms in the park, under the agreement, while keeping it clean, sanitary, and safe with a “reasonable police presence.” The city must also move a water main and improve a pedestrian tunnel, both beneath the park, and creating an improvement plan for Summit Street between Washington and Cherry streets.

The deal requires the city to enter into a “Toledo Expansion Incentive Program” agreement with ProMedica. Under that program, one-third of new income tax proceeds from jobs on the site would be rebated to ProMedica. Ms. Whitney said as many as 555 jobs could be new to Toledo.

Under a “Community Reinvestment Area Program” agreement, all property taxes there would be abated for seven years.

Randy Oostra, ProMedica’s chief executive officer, said the number of jobs the company plans to move downtown could balloon to as many 2,500.

The company in early 2014 said 800 people would occupy its new downtown campus — including those at its current corporate headquarters on Richards Road. Ms. Whitney told Toledo City Council’s parks and recreation committee early this month that 1,000 jobs would be housed in the former steam plant and KeyBank Building. Of those 1,000 jobs, 625 would be new to Toledo. One hundred would be newly created jobs, and 525 would come from the suburbs. Five hundred people will be in the steam plant, including Mr. Oostra, whose office is planned to be in a three-story waterfront addition added to the historic structure.

Mr. Oostra said the second phase of its relocation would include moving employees from Paramount, an affiliate of ProMedica that is in Maumee’s Arrowhead Park. There are about 540 Paramount employees.

Of the 1,500 jobs in the second phase, about half would be new to Toledo, Ms. Whitney said.

Mr. Oostra said the company is pursuing options to purchase other buildings downtown but has none currently. Mr. Oostra acknowledged there is some opposition to building the garage in the park, but the company examined other options and argued none was suitable.

The property includes a 0.83-acre parcel in Promenade Park. An additional 1.33 acres in the park would be included, but the company would grant a permanent public easement back to the city. The property north of the steam plant is about 1.2 acres, said Stacy Weber, spokesman for Mayor D. Michael Collins.

Mr. Oostra said the company plans to “adopt Promenade Park” and wants to revive CitiFest, an organization that planned events downtown.

The proposed deal includes a clause that would require ProMedica to reimburse taxpayers for the current value of the conveyed public property if the company ever sells it. Mr. Oostra said the city would be given the first right to buy back the property.

The company plans to start construction in late November and finish by early 2017.

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published January 20, 2015, 9:37 p.m.