What a terrific idea in the battle against the high price of "free" parking - not only a way to encourage pedestrian activity, but also a means of charitable giving.
Change collected at premium parking spots to benefit charities
By DORIS HAJEWSKI
[email protected]Bring a few quarters if you want to park in front of your favorite store at the new Bayshore Town Center.
Advertisement The Glendale shopping center expansion, set to open Nov. 2, looks just like a mini-downtown. That will include parking meters that will set you back $1 per hour. And then you'll have to move your car.
Unlimited free parking for about 4,200 cars will be available in parking garages and surface lots at the new lifestyle center. But users of the 180 spaces on the internal streets in the center will have to pay 25 cents per 15 minutes, and there will be a one-hour limit for the spaces, shopping center spokesman Phill Trewyn said.
The center's developer, Steiner & Associates of Columbus, Ohio, will donate all parking fees to local charities in a program designed to make shoppers feel better about paying.
Steiner uses the Change for Charity Meter Program at several of its existing lifestyle centers in other states, including Easton Town Center in Columbus, in an effort to keep spaces available to shoppers who want to make a quick visit to just one or two stores, Trewyn said. Without the meters, it would be difficult - or impossible - to prevent employees or others who arrive early from hogging the spaces.
"It's been very well-received," Trewyn said.
Proceeds from the meters at Easton totaled $15,000 last year.
Parking scofflaws will get a $5 ticket if they leave their cars at an expired meter, Trewyn said.
Mall security guards will issue the tickets, which come in waterproof envelopes. Violators can pay their fines at the center's service desk, where they will get a receipt, because the fine is a deductible charitable donation.
Lifestyle centers are among the most popular configurations for new shopping developments. The centers combine retail, restaurant, office and entertainment venues in an open-air setting designed to look like an urban streetscape.
Change for Charity is one of five programs in Bayshore's Community Foundation. The center also will fund a scholarship program for students at Dominican, Whitefish Bay and Nicolet high schools; will donate to other programs at the schools; and will make the town center available as the site of a fund-raising event once a year for a different group each time.
Bayshore announced this week that Bar Louie, a national chain with a location on N. Water St. in Milwaukee, will be part of the center. Other tenants announced this week include New York & Co., Champs Sports, Cheesecake Factory and Sunglass Hut.
The center will have 1.2 million square feet of retail stores, restaurants, office space and residential units.
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