Camana Bay and EY have partnered on a web-based parking programme aimed at increasing parking efficiency in the Town Centre.
The pilot programme revolves around the ability for staff to check their computers or phones to see when certain parking spots are available.
“For example, if an employee of EY has been assigned a space in the parking garage and they are not in office, this space would become available to another EY employee, essentially eliminating the need to park in a surface parking spot," said Camana Bay Assistant Property Manager Lara Conolly.
“The programme is web-based. Users can access it via their PC or via a shortcut saved on their mobile device that will allow app-like functionality. Tenants’ staff use this to view their firm’s parking plan and reserve available parking spots, similar to when you reserve a seat on an aeroplane.”
The programme allows tenants to move away from individually assigned covered parking spots by instead encouraging staff to reserve spots in advance, based on intended attendance for the day or week. According to Conolly, this is ensuring 100% utilisation of covered parking spots daily, and an overall greater availability of surface parking spots which are preferred by the general public, couriers, and so on.
“Following the COVID-19 lockdowns, it was evident that the future of work life would change forever,” said Camana Bay Vice President of Property Management Marvin Cox, noting a considerable shift toward flexible hours and the ability to work from home.
Fewer bodies at the office meant that a number of desirable, covered parking lots in Camana Bay’s Forum Lane multi-storey parking garage were going unused, while the demand for surface lots continued to increase. That's when Cox decided to explore opportunities for more efficient use of allocated tenant parking spaces.
“The solution had to allow tenants’ staff to access a parking reservation system from their PC or mobile device, which is easy to use and does not require an app to be installed,” he said.
After settling on a provider, Cox and his team approached EY to participate in a pilot programme, which they agreed to without hesitation.
Feedback on the programme has been overwhelmingly positive, and Cox and Conolly are gearing up to expand the programme to other Camana Bay tenants in the near future.
Cox said his team is constantly trialing innovative technological solutions, "with a goal to promote optimisation and efficiency in all we do."
This article was originally published in the November 2022 print edition of Camana Bay Times.