Parkades filling empty space with new events

With fewer commuters driving into the core, the Calgary Parking Authority is getting creative to find ways to cash in on acres of increasingly empty concrete in inner-city lots and parkades.

Street fairs, fundraisers, movie shoots and bike swaps are now filling the void in some vacant downtown lots in an effort by the cityowned parking agency to shore up dwindling revenues from the facilities amid Calgary’s economic swoon.

Last year, the parking authority’s revenues from parkades dropped by $3.6 million, in addition to another $600,000 from surface lots.

Much of that can be attributed to the fact fewer people are driving downtown, which holds the vast majority of the CPA’s parking assets. According to a city commuter survey conducted in May, over the past four years traffic volume into the core has decreased 28 per cent to 46,000 commuters logged during the morning peak, about 8,000 fewer than in 2016.

Reachel Knight, the parking authority’s manager of facilities, said officials have recognized there are opportunities to turn empty stalls into profit and help stanch the bleeding of revenue from parking structures over the past year.

“What we’ve noticed in downtown Calgary is on weekends and evenings demand is pretty low, and we realized there was an opportunity to optimize revenue,” she said.

“We’ve always provided those services, but we’ve put a lot more focus into it recently given we’re looking at other revenue streams for the organizations.

“Ultimately, we’d love to see a farmer’s market in here if we could.”

Over the past year, CPA lots have been rented out for the annual science and culture festival Beakerhead, the East Village street fair, Kensington’s Diagon Alley, a local tavern’s Stampede tent, and a fundraiser for the Alberta River Surfing Association. Empty portions of parkades have been used for sheltered bike swap events, allowing cyclists to test-drive their new rides, protected from the elements.

Parkades and lots have also been booked for movie and television shoots, as well as acting as staging areas for parades.

Knight said as the parking authority builds new facilities they’re being designed to be multi-purpose,

What we’ve noticed in downtown Calgary is on weekends and evenings demand is pretty low.

scaling back on things like sloping grades and other adaptations to allow for greater functionality.

“These properties should be able to be repurposed in the future,” she said.

The parking authority rents out its surface lots for seven cents per square foot, while parkades can be rented for 10 cents per square foot. Discounts and donations are also available for community groups and charities.

Given the extended focus on monetizing empty structures, parking officials had budgeted for an extra $100,000 in revenues for 2017, and Knight noted they’ve already exceeded that number.

“We have to adapt quickly,” she said. “Going forward, we know there’s an opportunity to provide these services in our facilities and we can ensure anything we build in the future will provide even more opportunities.”

Occupancy in the city-owned parking lots has continued to soften in 2017, but is forecast to rebound next year, the agency says.

The parking authority is selffunded through its own generated revenues, and revenue from event rentals are returned to the city in the form of an annual dividend payment. Over the past five years, the CPA has returned more than $135 million in revenue and taxes to city coffers.