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The walls are going up, and now Naples City Council has the cash to move forward with a multi-million parking garage just blocks away from City Hall.

Naples City Council accepted a plan to finance the nearly $9 million parking garage on Eighth Street South and Sixth Avenue South through a bank note.

The $6.86 million note will be paid off over 15 years, according to a memo from Finance Director Ann Marie Ricardi.

Paying off the note, however, is more complicated than just cutting a check for $623,000 each year.

City Council will be responsible for making the initial payment, said Naples City Manager Bill Moss. The payment will be made using non-ad valorem revenues, such as utility tax funds.

The city will not feel the brunt of the payments, though. The initial payments will come from the city’s coffers but the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will then be asked to reimburse the city.

The CRA has the funding set aside in the budget to accommodate the semi-annual payment, but because of a state Supreme Court decision last year, it was unable to buy bonds to fund the project.

The court ruled in September 2007 that communities need voter approval to use tax increment funding for projects, such as roads, buildings and other projects in redevelopment districts. That decision reversed a precedent that was set 27 years earlier.

Redevelopment districts got a reprieve in September, though, when the high court reversed its earlier decision.

But Moss said the city was able to get a more favorable interest rate from a local bank, rather than seeking out a bond for the project.

Hancock Bank of Florida has issued the bank note at the rate of 4.04 percent, according to Ricardi’s report.

The new four-story garage is expected to cost the city about $8.6 million, and create an additional 329 parking spaces.

The garage is scheduled to open early next year.