Guiding Lights Bring Shoppers to Parking Spaces

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The parking garage merry-go-round is one of the more unpleasant aspects to the holiday shopping season the seemingly endless circling to find a space.

Now, Westfield Century City Mall is stopping the ride.

Amid stiff competition from competing upscale malls, the center has installed a multi-million-dollar system intended to make it easier for customers to find parking in its 2,600-space garage.

The Park Assist system, developed by Australian start-up Park Assist Ltd. and in use in Australia and Europe, uses sensors, red and green lighting and LED displays to lead shoppers to available spots. The driver is directed at every decision point in the garage to open spaces marked by green lights.

“The system has been amazing,” said Erick Klafter, the mall’s general manager. “We expected a lot and have to say that we’re going to consider putting one of these systems in every new development. It made us wonder how we lived without it.”

The system was formally introduced to the media last week, but has been operating since late August well in advance of the critical holiday shopping season which could be its toughest in years.

The outdoor mall has undergone a $125 million renovation and features luxury retailers such as Bloomingdale’s and Tiffany & Co. drawing an affluent demographic. Still, even luxury retailers are seeing slower sales amid the softening economy.

Moreover, the Grove outdoor mall has proven to be wildly popular and the Beverly Center, another competitor, recently completed its own big renovation.

The Century City mall is owned by Westfield Group, which is based in Sydney, Australia and is the world’s largest mall operator. Klafter said the mall decided to install the system after a Westfield mall in Australia had good success with it.

Richard Joffe, co-founder of Park Assist, said parking lots traditionally can only reach 95 percent capacity, with a handful of spots going unfilled because they simply get missed by shoppers in a packed parking lot.

Joffe maintained retailers should see an uptick in sales of 3 percent to 5 percent, claiming that has been the case after other Park Assist systems have been installed at retail outlets.

“If you’re aggravated by parking, you’re only going to grow more aggravated shopping,” he said. “Being that the malls in L.A. are so crowded and being that generally the worst experience of shopping is parking, Westfield is definitely looking at this system as a competitive advantage.”

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