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Short Parking Stories

June, 2017

Denison Parking Announces Executive Leadership Transition


Denison Parking, Indianapolis’ largest parking management company, has announced the departure of President and CEO Mark Pratt and the promotion of Jeff Line to President, effective May 1.


The respected and innovative parking industry executive leaves Denison under amicable terms, after leading it for 15 years, to start a new business venture in the parking industry. He intends to stay in the Indianapolis area and has agreed to be available to Denison for periodic advisory services.


“Mark’s leadership was simply invaluable to both Denison and its clients,” said Board Chairman Perry Griffith. “We experienced considerable growth in Indianapolis and beyond, and we became recognized ... as a leader in parking technology.”


Line has been an executive with Denison Parking for 10 years, most recently as Executive VP and COO. Previously, he had been President of The Nyhart Co.


“We are very fortunate to have Jeff already on our executive team and ready to lead Denison,” Griffith said. “Our clients can be assured that our commitment to quality parking options, peerless customer service, and a strong community presence will be unaffected during this transition period.”


Pratt said: “It’s been an honor to lead the best team I’ve ever been around. While I look forward to a new and exciting challenge, I’ll remain engaged with my Denison colleagues and clients through my advisory responsibilities.”  


[Source: Denison Parking]


 


Frank Transue Retires from Board Of Walker Parking Consultants


A legendary parking career has come to a close. Frank Transue, former CEO of Walker Parking Consultants and Chairman Emeritus of its Board, officially retired from the Board of the world’s leading parking consulting firm.


Transue had a long and storied career, but he will be best remembered, the firm said, for the instrumental role he played in helping to transform the parking industry and the field of parking consultation.


When he took the reins at Walker in 1986, the firm was already renowned as the world’s leading parking design firm. In the 1960s and ’70s, it had pioneered many of the parking design elements that we take for granted today.


In fact, Walker created the concept of the mega-parking structure, which today can be found at theme parks, airports and international developments around the globe. Walker also is credited as being one of the first firms to promote the concept of “shared parking” at mixed-use developments, and the firm was instrumental in the development of design standards for accessible parkers.


Transue’s stewardship coincided with one of the industry’s most important eras when the concept of parking planning was developed. For the first time, trained planners demonstrated how parking could help promote economic development, reduce roadway congestion, and improve the quality of life for citizens.


Through Transue’s leadership, Walker once again took the lead in creating new approaches that provide widespread benefits to communities across the U.S. Today, we take parking planning for granted, but when he took over at Walker, it didn’t exist as a distinct urban planning practice, and cities and towns didn’t treat parking as the valuable strategic asset that we now know it to be.


While Transue was an engineer rather than a planner, he “recognized the importance of parking planning and fostered Walker’s efforts to promote parking as a vital element of urban planning,” the firm said.


In the 49 years since Transue was hired by Walker as a young engineer, the parking world has experienced extraordinary growth and change.


When he began his career, the U.S. was in the midst of the Auto Age. The decade-old Interstate Highway System had brought the wonders of auto travel to millions of Americans. And the transformation of America by the personal vehicle led to a newfound need for parking in communities across the U.S.


Transue grew up professionally in that environment, and the parking industry’s growth mirrored that of his own career. In fact, his leadership of the industry’s largest parking consulting firm played an essential role in its growth. Today, parking is a $100 billion industry in the U.S., and $300 billion worldwide.


Though Frank Transue would never say so himself, the massive success of the industry over the past half-century bears his mark.


[Source: Walker Parking Consultants]


 


 


SpotHero Acquires Parking Panda, Claiming Top Position in North American Reservations


SpotHero, the nation’s leading parking reservation service, has acquired Parking Panda, the leader in event parking reservations in the U.S. and Canada. A press release states that this move firmly positions SpotHero as the category leader across all major off-street parking verticals, including daily, monthly, business, event and airport parking.


On track to park 20 million cars in 2017 and offering nearly 5,000 parking locations across North America, SpotHero is “a driving force in the parking industry’s evolution as it embraces technology and focuses increasingly on customer experience.”


“We’re thrilled to combine forces with Parking Panda to bring easy parking to more drivers faster,” said Mark Lawrence, SpotHero Co-Founder and CEO. “We’ve long admired its talented team and ability to drive product innovation. [Our] consumer focus and great mobile experience are further strengthened by [its] strong B2B technology and partnerships.”


Prior to the acquisition, Parking Panda had established more than 800 strategic partnerships, including event parking with numerous NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA teams, as well as with major convention centers, sports arenas, theaters and municipalities.


In 2016, the company leveraged this strength in partnerships and event parking to enter the Canadian market, quickly achieving scale. SpotHero will use its momentum in Canada to continue building holistic mobility solutions for drivers and parking companies in 47 major cities across North America.


With what is already the largest network of connected garages in the U.S. and the broadest base of mobile-first consumers, SpotHero said it is positioned to replicate this success in Canada.


The company also will accelerate its aggressive B2B product roadmap with the integration of Parking Panda’s robust suite of tools and technology, including unique SaaS offerings designed for the parking industry. For consumers, the expanded engineering team will mean rapid innovation to the company’s award-winning platform with a heavy focus on driver convenience.


[Source: SpotHero]


 


Comarch and Nedap Partner on Parking in Warsaw


The City of Warsaw has selected the Polish IT company Comarch to optimize parking in the streets of the capital city. Nedap is partnering with Comarch for the occupancy detection of individual parking spaces, using its Sensit bay-mounted sensor system. Almost 200 parking spaces at the Plac Konstytucji and the Central Railway Station of Warsaw are monitored by “smart” parking technologies.


Real-time parking information is available in the Comarch Smart City Parking software application. The project was commissioned by the Zarząd Dróg Miejskich (Municipal Road Authority).


Comarch was selected by the city to introduce a smart parking platform. The technology behind it is based on its system and a mobile application for residents and visitors. This enables the system to collect information on parking occupancy and to inform drivers in real-time about available spaces, including navigation to the suggested spot.


As a part of this project, Nedap’s smart parking sensor system Sensit was implemented to cover the parking spaces at the Plac Konstytucji.


[Sources: Comarch, Nedap]


Multimillion-Dollar Capital Injection Helps Frogparking Expand Globally


World-leading Kiwi parking technology firm Frogparking is on a major growth program off the back of a multimillion-dollar investment, the company said.


Co-founded by entrepreneurial father-daughter team Don and Shareena Sandbrook in 2010, Frogparking has grown into “a global export success with a wide range of major customers and partnerships across the U.S., Europe and Australasia.”


Managing Director Shareena Sandbrook said the investment, amounting to a 25% shareholding, will facilitate growth in its already established key markets, enabling it to meet escalating demand for its products and lead the charge into new markets.


“This is a $100 billion global industry, and we are well-positioned to take it on. We have well-established distribution networks and partnerships, a suite of large customers using our products and a great team of people here in New Zealand.


“With this investment,” she said, “we can build on our successes and take the business to the next level of global growth, aggressively boosting our sales and marketing presence offshore, increasing our engineering and operations team, and pumping more funds into R&D so we can continue ... in technological innovation.”


Frogparking also has appointed shareholder Malcolm Bailey as Chair of the Board. He’s an experienced director and business owner with international market expertise, the company said. “Frogparking is a world-leader,” he said, “and keen to push the company’s drive into key markets including the U.S., Asia and Europe.


[Source: Frogparking]


 


Pango USA, PPA Agree to Suspend Parking App Program


Pango U.S.A. and the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) have jointly agreed to suspend the MeterUP program in the city. Since the last quarter of 2016, when Pango was purchased by Parking by Phone and its new ownership inherited the agreement, Pango said it had tried to work with the PPA to find solutions consistent with the agreement and giving Pango the opportunity to make additional income beyond the $.01 convenience fee to help limit losses.


After months of meetings without progress on those solutions, and since the PPA demanded to cut off value-added services that were already in place, both parties have now agreed that this partnership cannot continue.


The Pango team said, “[We believe] we have provided the best possible mobile pay solution to the citizens of Philadelphia under the circumstances, and we thank those citizens for the opportunity to serve them.”


Pango President & CEO John Incandela said “We will continue to concentrate on current customers and look to develop new business through-out North America”.


Pango currently has relationships across the nation, he continued. “Our ongoing new added-value services, state-of-the-art solutions and strong development team will continue to lead the way in this field.”


The company added new services Pango Save and a business merchant solution Pango Select.


[Sources: Pango U.S.A., Parking by Phone]



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