By Cillea Houghton
NASHVILLE, TN — With the volume of new residents moving to Nashville each month, parking has become a major issue, and the Parkmobile app works to alleviate this problem.
Through the app, consumers are able to pay for parking ahead of time by reserving a spot in a garage where Parkmobile is applicable. With parking inventory in several major cities across the US, Nashville has become the largest market in Tennessee for Parkmobile, with additional locations in Memphis and Knoxville. Parkmobile offers more than 15,000 parking spots in roughly 30 garages across Nashville including Commerce Street Garages A and B, Sun Trust Plaza, Rosa L Parks Blvd at Cathedral Lot and 5th Avenue of the Arts Garage.
Photo courtesy of Pitch Public Relations
“We generally find cities that have fairly congested urban centers where there’s a lot of population, parking sometimes can be a challenge. That’s really where our service becomes critical to a lot of municipalities,” Parkmobile Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Perkins said.
And Nashville falls into this category. The city brought in 14.5 million tourists in 2017, according to the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. One of the city’s most populated areas is downtown on Broadway, where the National Museum of African American Music is slated to open in 2019.
“Parking is challenging for a lot of people in that area,” Perkins said of Broadway, a major location for Parkmobile. “Generally, those are the areas where we do very well, where there’s a lot of people and there’s a lot of parking and people are just trying to figure out ‘where should I park.’ They need a better way to find that parking.”
Parkmobile can be utilized while attending events at Bridgestone Arena, Ryman Auditorium, Nissan Stadium and Ascend Ampitheatre, as well as making Park ‘N Fly reservations at the airport. According to Perkins, booking ahead saves costumers 50 to 20 percent off the standard garage rate. Parking rates vary for each garage, ranging from $5.82 to $22.73 when booking for Nashville Predators games and $11.50 to $17.06 for shows at the Ryman Auditorium. Costumers are also able to extend their parking time in a lot, receiving an in-app alert and text message notifying them that time is running down.
“We’re one of the real leaders in the industry, so often times people come to us because they want to generate more revenue for their parking garage and we’re able to serve up the very large audience that needs to park,” Perkins said.
Though patrons do have to book for a specific event to claim parking at venues like Ryman Auditorium or Bridgestone Arena, commuters coming into the city for limited time have access to several garages in town where they can make a reservation via the app, which provides turn-by-turn directions to the garage. Parkmobile utilizes an inventory management tool that ensures garage operators are not selling out a lot when they have reservations.
The company’s goal is to ultimately become the one-stop shop for parking in Nashville, hoping to acquire on-street parking business in the city, “so people can just use one app in Nashville and do all their parking across the market,” Perkins said.
The Parkmobile app is available for download on smartphone, Android and iOS devices.
