May the Director include “special account” provisions in concession contracts?
36 C.F.R. § 51.81
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01(a) The Director may not include in concession contracts “special account” provisions, that is, contract provisions which require or authorize a concessioner to undertake with a specified percentage of the concessioner's gross receipts the construction of real property improvements, including, without limitation, capital improvements on park lands. The construction of capital improvements will be undertaken only pursuant to the leasehold surrender interest provisions of this part and the applicable concession contract.
(b) Concession contracts may contain provisions that require the concessioner to set aside a percentage of its gross receipts or other funds in a component renewal reserve to be used at the direction of the Director solely for renewal of real property components located in park areas and utilized by the concessioner in its operations. The anticipated timing and estimated costs of component renewal projects should be identified in the prospectus. Component renewal reserve funds may not be expended to construct real property improvements, including, without limitation, capital improvements. Component renewal reserve provisions may not be included in concession contracts in lieu of a franchise fee, and funds from these reserves will be expended only for the renewal of real property components as identified in the contract and assigned to the concessioner by the Director for use in its operations. The component renewal reserve provides a mechanism for a concessioner to reserve monies to fund component renewal projects. Concessioner obligations to maintain assigned concession facilities including component renewal are not limited to the monies in the component renewal reserve.
(c) A concession contract must require the concessioner to maintain in good condition through a comprehensive repair and maintenance program all of the concessioner's personal property used in the performance of the concession contract and all real property improvements, including, without limitation, capital improvements, and, government personal property, assigned to the concessioner by a concession contract.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-36.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026