An online database of parking spaces may soon come to central Phoenix.
The Phoenix Parking Cooperative database, which was approved by the Downtown, Aviation and Redevelopment Subcommittee on Feb. 4, will include a catalog of all parking garages and lots in the area, including the number of parking spaces, number of vacant spaces and monthly parking costs. The plan is up for a City Council vote in the near future.
The lack of available parking space downtown and in midtown has been a challenge for tenants of the area, according to the City Council report that recommended the parking cooperative. MonOrchid owner Wayne Rainey voiced concerns about parking across Phoenix.
“I think parking is one of the biggest problems we’re going to face in the next five to 10 years, not only on Roosevelt Row, but in Phoenix in general,” Rainey said.
The absence of parking availability is also a problem for site selectors and new projects in the city, the report said.
During a typical site selection process, the company will hire a real estate professional who would then interview that company to find out about the specific requirements that the space they want to lease requires, said Christine Mackay, community and economic development director of Phoenix. The real estate professional will then find a space that fits these requirements.
Parking is one of the top requirements in a potential tenant’s consideration of a space, according to the report.
Currently, parking for offices typically requires five to eight spaces per 1,000 square feet of leased space, according to the report. However, the report adds that at the time the buildings in Central City were built, the parking lots only produced three to four spaces per thousand square feet.
As new projects come into the downtown area through approved site selections, parking solutions within the greater downtown area could attract new employers if effectively managed, said David Krietor, president and CEO of Downtown Phoenix, Inc.
The area between Camelback Road on the north, Buckeye Road on the south, and the area between Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street are the most challenged with parking issues, the report said. Mackay said that is because the area is one of the oldest in Phoenix.
When dealing with the density of the high rises that exist today, there are less vacant spaces around the buildings, Mackay said. The Central City’s vacancy rate currently ranges between 25 and 38 percent, according to the report. As a result, there is nowhere for a tenant to create his or her own parking lot, she said.
When real estate agents for big companies come to look at buildings in the downtown area, they often use commercial building databases, such as CoStar. Through this method, the agent will not even show the client the building if the requirements are not met, Mackay said.
To combat this, the database should be posted online, she said. It will also be included in the research conducted by real estate agents when looking into buildings in addition to commercial building database.
“A long time ago, when I started in this business, (real estate agents) had to call for information,” Mackay said. “Now they make decisions before calling me on the Internet. They do research before calling me, and so we don’t even know who’s looking. If the parking cooperative is posted online, they can see parking solutions and (Phoenix’s) buildings will make the short list.”
According to the report, the Community Economic Development staff met with a potential tenant in December 2014. The client approached CEDD and said that they are interested in a building but realized that there is no available parking in the area, Mackay explained. Community Economic Development referred the user to a parking garage, which had space available, she said.
“Just like a building, you pay to lease parking spaces,” Mackay said. “If the garage is not using a space, they’re not making money. It’s a win-win situation when we get a tenant to a downtown building … It fills up a parking garage so that the owners make revenue.”
As many as 70 percent of parking garage and parking lot owners will participate, Mackay said.
“Through this program the city is being very creative and innovative in addressing this issue,” Krietor said.
Rainey, however, believes that parking solutions need to be addressed in more of a creative way. Parking solutions should have mixed uses and be “architecturally significant,” Rainey said.
“A parking garage doesn’t just have to be a parking garage,” he said. “It can be aesthetically appealing, have multiple uses, and be active. We have this problem where we build things that are single use. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“If the Parking Cooperative follows what’s suggested by it’s own name, it’s going to be fantastic.”
Contact the reporter at jenny.ung@asu.edu.
