A Phoenix developer will avoid paying $67.8 million in sales taxes on construction, leases and retail by redeveloping the former Metrocenter Mall into parking garages it later will give back to the city.

According to a report by KJZZ, the developer will build up to nine public parking garages on the 80-acre site, which the city of Phoenix will own. The revenue from the garages will go toward operation, maintenance and to the developer. When the garages are paid off, all revenue will then go to the city, according to the report.

"Taxpayers aren’t on the hook for running it, people who park there are on the hook for running it - or paying for it,” City Councilman Jim Waring told KJZZ. “And then when there’s spillover, it goes to the developer to pay them off for building it and at the end we have a revenue-generating asset."

The former mall is planned to be split into a public green space, 2,800 multi-family housing units and 383,000 square feet of commercial space, in addition to the parking area.

“We can charge for parking, a future council could choose to sell the garage and monetize the garage at that time — that would be for a future council to decide what they want to do with that publicly owned asset,” Economic Development Director Chris Mackay told KJZZ.