The CityScape mixed-use development in downtown Phoenix on Washington Street implemented a new form of parking for its guests this past Tuesday. Pango is a mobile app for smartphones that allows guests to pay for parking through its software without having to be assisted by attendants.
“It’s a convenient way for people to pay for parking,” said Celine Hacche, marketing director for CityScape and RED Development.
RED Development is a real estate company that owns and manages CityScape, which brings many different retailers, restaurants and entertainment to the residents of the downtown Phoenix area.
The Pango company was originally based out of Israel. PangoUSA president Neil Edwards said Pango is the first to invent a mobile parking service and is an original patent. It started internationally and is now being introduced in the United States. CityScape in downtown Phoenix is the second location nationwide.
The concept of Pango came about last fall when Pango approached CityScape. Edwards said they chose CityScape because he was looking for a progressive urbanized community that was still growing. He added that there was no other place with the type of audience downtown Phoenix has because of the surrounding businesses and CityScape’s own occupants.
“It was a perfect storm as you would put it. … It has a lot of retail merchants, restaurants and a five-star hotel. It’s geographically in the heart of downtown,” Edwards said.
Edwards explained that their short-term goals were to have the system in every garage in the downtown Phoenix area and potentially their long-term goal is to have it used for meter parking in the same area.
Hacche said CityScape started testing and installing about three to four months ago, and it went smoothly from the get-go.
The concept behind the application is to make paying for parking more convenient and to give back to customers.
Customers will sign up for the app with their credit card information. Patrons then enter the gate number into the app, opening the gate.
“They can get validated like you would with a regular parking ticket and, as you leave, you press stop parking and rather than having to interact with an attendant and get your card or cash out, its automatically charges your card and you can leave,” Hacche said. “It’s very convenient and easy for people who are very tech savvy.”
If you do not have a smartphone, Edwards said that anyone could sign up via a 1-800 number and then use that same number to check in and out of the parking garage as you would on your smartphone every time you parked in the garage.
Lanier Parking Solutions assistant manager Jose Morales said he believes it will alleviate some of the traffic in the underground parking structure. Morales said he has only heard of one guest attempting to use the program and thinks since it is new, it doesn’t have a lot of groundwork here yet and will take some time to become popular.
Morales said the opening ceremony was last week and validations with the application’s information on it were sent out Feb. 12 and that since it is new, the application will need time for customers to get used to.
Pango also embeds special offers that provide opportunities for retailers to interact with their customers.
“It gives CityScape one more tool to stay on the cutting edge of consumer experience downtown,” said Andy Jacobs, a Pango representative from the Policy Development Group.
Even though the system is new and not popular yet, resident businesses look forward to the possibilities it may bring for them and their guests in the future.
“I think it’s going to be great for timing, which a lot of people are looking for. … Timing and convenience are the two biggest components,” Arrogant Butcher manager Andre Robinson said. Arrogant Butcher is a restaurant located in CityScape.
Contact the reporter at kyleigh.zmijewski@asu.edu
