Industry News
July, 2018
Acuity Brands, Inc. announced Ed Ebrahimian has joined the company’s Enterprise Solutions sales operations as Vice President, Business Development. Most recently, Ebrahimian was General Manager and Director, Bureau of Street Lighting for the City of Los Angeles, the second largest municipal street lighting system in the United States.
During Ebrahimian’s tenure, the City of Los Angeles converted more than 180,000 streets lights to energy efficient and maintenance-friendly LED lighting, and initiated the deployment of additional technologies, such as remote monitoring and controls.
Colonial Airport Parking has launched a new mobile app that makes it faster, easier, and less expensive for customers to park when traveling from the Philadelphia International Airport. With the Colonial Airport Parking Mobile App, travelers can easily make parking reservations and automatically receive the 10 percent Colonial Airport Advantage Member discount. Travelers now have the ability to request a shuttle pick up right from the app, with an estimated arrival time and real-time shuttle tracking. The feature uses Geo Location to demonstrate the shuttles’ exact distance from the airport.
Propark America announced that it has completed the installation of 16 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its Red Beam Garage C location, servicing T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island. “Propark is thrilled to provide T.F. Green Airport travelers with additional convenient EV charging capabilities, for free,” said Propark’s Chief Executive Officer, John Schmid. “As a parking company rooted in sustainability, we believe strongly in continuing to advance the charging infrastructure as more and more people are driving electric vehicles.”
The U.S. headquarters for DESIGNA has announced the promotion of Thomas Bradfish to Director of Sales and Marketing for its U.S. operations. Tom Bradfish has built an extensive background in the parking industry since 2002, and more recently as one of DESIGNA USA’s Regional Sales Managers. In his new position, Bradfish will focus his efforts on the sales and marketing of the DESIGNA brand across North America. As part of an expansion strategy, DESIGNA is significantly investing in and expanding its staff.
An initial action for this strategy was to appoint Tom Sivak as the new CEO for DESIGNA USA in January 2018. Additionally, two new satellite offices were recently opened on the country’s East and West Coasts. “Tom has almost 20 years’ experience in PARCS and maintains strong relationships in the industry,” said Sivak. “His time at Designa supporting many aspects of this department has positioned him well to be successful in this new path. Bradfish replaces Robert J. Kane, Senior Vice-President of Sales & Marketing, who has left the company to pursue new challenges. Bob Kane looks back on an influential and successful career at DESIGNA. He joined the company in January 2011 and has successfully launched and positioned DESIGNA in the U.S. market through his personal engagement and excellent network. He is a dedicated marketing specialist who was focused on the sales, marketing and promotion of the DESIGNA brand. Designa was delighted with the pleasant and professional teamwork with Bob Kane and thank him for the successful collaboration, where we have
achieved a lot. Designa wishes Bob Kane all the best, both professionally and personally.
Premium Parking announced the addition of Charles Dummett as Market President for Central Florida and the Bahamas. Charles will lead Premium’s business development and operations for private and public-sector clients along the Gulf Coast and Nassau, Bahamas. “Charles’ experience as a municipal operator brings us incredible insights and the ability to lead the industry with operational strategies that benefit our current and future clients,” said Ben Montgomery, President. The company also announced the addition of Nathan Donnell to its executive leadership team as VP Business Development. Nathan will oversee the introduction of the company’s technology solutions for parking management to both private and public-sector clients in the Central and Western United States. “We’re thrilled to have Nathan join us to work alongside Brent Paxton, chief business development officer, and our talented business development team,” added Montgomery.
Genetec Inc. announced Plate Link, a new feature for its AutoVu™ automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) solution. Designed to allow vehicles to share license plate data while out on patrol, Plate Link acts as a force multiplier for parking enforcement officers (PEOs), allowing them to administer shared permits and time-limited parking bylaws across multiple zones more efficiently. Managing shared parking permits (where several vehicles share a single permit) can be a complex and time-consuming task.
A new mobile application is available for parkers in the City of North Bay. The mobile parking app enables drivers to conveniently pay for their parking at any of its nearly 850 on-street and off-street car parks across the city. The app is powered by Passport, serving cities and universities across North America. The City of North Bay worked in conjunction with the North Bay Downtown Improvement Area (DIA) to bring this innovative technology
to drivers.
Phoenix Motorcars is proud to announce that the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD)/Phoenix proposal has been awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) 2017 Targeted Airshed Grant. Phoenix will utilize the $3.18 million grant from the U.S. EPA to replace 29 diesel and gas-fueled shuttle buses at the four major airports in Southern California (LAX, Ontario, JWA and Hollywood Burbank) with zero-emission battery-electric shuttles manufactured locally by Phoenix Motorcars.
T2 Systems announced 16 recent customer wins for permit management and enforcement, license plate recognition (LPR), pay stations, and PARCS. These organizations are part of the largest and most collaborative customer community in the industry with T2.T2’s recent contracts include:
Baltimore County (Permit Management, Enforcement)
Ann Arbor (Pay Stations)
Louisiana State University (Permit Management, Enforcement)
Riverside Parking (Pay Stations)
White Plains (Pay Stations)
WallyPark Atlanta (PARCS)
Texas A&M Health Science Center (PARCS)
Pace Parking (Pay Stations)
Missoula Parking Commission (PARCS and LPR, Enforcement)
Fresno State (Pay Stations)
University of Alberta (LPR, Enforcement)
University of Pacific (Permit Management, Enforcement, Citation Services)
Propark America announced that Honor Miele has joined the company as the new regional manager in Los Angeles, California. “I am thrilled to have Honor Miele as part of our Parking Dream Team, especially during this exciting period of growth for Propark,” said Senior Vice President, Peter Thorson. “Honor comes to us with a diverse parking management background, which will enhance our existing operations, while helping us continue to expand in the Los Angeles marketplace.” The Company also announced that it has assumed management responsibility for the parking operations at Rego Center Mall in Queens, New York. “We’re honored to provide management services to Rego Center Mall,” said Kristen Sokich, Propark’s senior vice president. “This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our expertise in the retail parking environment, where our creative approaches to revenue control and premium service delivery intersect for the benefit of the mall’s employees and guests.”
LAZ Parking, through its partnership relationships with Preston Hollow Capital and Provident Resource Group, has commenced operations on the 35-year Public Private Partnership at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). As part of the partnership, ParkEMU was established, and moving forward, shall serve as the new name for the parking system at EMU. Through this parking entity, ParkEMU will bring new technology, innovation, and best-in-class parking services to the entire campus. EMU, which has more than 21,000 students, has over 9,700 parking spaces in two garages and 36 parking lots and 179 parking meters on its Ypsilanti campus.
Just in time for the first big waves of summer, the City of Seal Beach announces the launch of its new mobile parking application, PassportParking®. The app allows parkers to pay for their parking with their smartphones. This is the first time Seal Beach will have a mobile payment app available to residents and visitors. Our goal is to provide a higher standard of customer service for residents and visitors. The PassportParking payment option gives Seal Beach parkers an easier option to pay for parking,” said Seal Beach Police Cmdr. Steve Bowles.
Building on its recent success in Denver and New York City, the mobile parking platform ParkMan has teamed up with California Parking and launched the first lots in San Francisco on May 1, 2018. Following years of dedicated effort and continued growth in European markets, the Nordic software company is now gaining traction in the U.S. market and is soon in business on both U.S. coasts. The CEO of ParkMan USA LLC, Patrick Kongsbak, commented that “We have partnered with the top regional player, California Parking for our launch here and couldn’t be more excited to join them in serving the citizens of San Francisco,” he said.
Amano McGann has expanded the territory of veteran partner, Mitchell Time and Parking. Mitchell Time and Parking is the exclusive Amano McGann dealer for Central and Western Texas. Mitchell Time and Parking has a long and storied reputation for providing unparalleled service and solutions to their clients. They have over 70 years of expertise with Amano McGann hardware and software. “Finding the right solution for our customers is our number one priority,” said President of Mitchell Time and Parking, Gary Hobbs. “We stand out from the competition because of our depth of experience and our commitment to our customers after the sale and through the life of the project.” President and CEO of Amano McGann, Tom Benton commented, “Amano McGann and Mitchell Time and Parking have been a collaborative team for decades.”
MobileNOW! has partnered with The Village of Port Jefferson to thank visitors for their local patronage and highlight the widely adopted MobileNOW! app. Due to its success during the weekend of May 11, Port Jefferson is continuing the free parking promotion in conjunction with MobileNOW! as part of a monthly customer appreciation series. “We are pleased to promote and support free parking opportunities at high demand times where we know that our local businesses and restaurants need the extra help most,” said Kevin Wood, Port Jefferson’s parking administrator. “Port Jeff Village is pro-business and is always seeking ways to make visitation and parking in our village easier.”
TomTom announced that it has teamed up with ParkWhiz, a leading provider of parking services. ParkWhiz will provide TomTom with access to one of the largest databases of dedicated public parking facilities for the United States and Canada. By integrating the parking information with its highly detailed and accurate maps, TomTom enables end users of its location products to quickly find and navigate to parking destinations.
About 600 parking meters will go up to manage 900 spaces from First Street to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Walnut Street to Plum Street. The Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority is working with Lanier Parking to get them up and running. “Our partnership with McKay and with Passport parking is going to allow us to do things in a customer service, customer service manner in town. We’re not into counting quarters, we’re worried about the customer experience,” said Ben Steffen, Lanier’s territory manager.
EasyPark, Europe’s leading digital parking solution currently delivers a range of innovative services to millions of users living across 13 markets. Soon, a new update will allow car drivers globally to connect to the EasyPark service from their regular mobile number, no matter where they live. The update not only gives more people traveling through EasyPark cities with access to a better parking experience, but it also provides parking operators with access to even more customers.
Parkopedia, announced the appointment of Steve Hernandez as Vice President of Parking, North America, a new position within the company. In this new role, based out of Atlanta, GA, Steve will be expanding Parkopedia’s North American partnerships with parking operators and municipalities. Steve is a 16-year industry veteran specializing in parking management and technology.
T2 Systems introduced Luke® Cosmo, a slender multi-space pay station designed specifically for on-street parking in cities of all sizes. Luke Cosmo is the newest addition to T2’s industry-leading Luke® collection of multi-space pay stations. Luke Cosmo—short for ‘cosmopolitan’—features the shallowest parking cabinet available in the market today, contributing to a friendly street environment and optimal pedestrian traffic flow. “We’re very proud and excited to unveil Luke Cosmo. It’s built using our same best-in-class Luke technology, but is designed specifically with cities and communities in mind,” said Adam Blake, CEO of T2.
