Atlantic Station Doing Away With Totally Free Parking
Decatur Metro | July 6, 2011What Now Atlanta? reports that Atlantic Station is informing customers that beginning July 11th they’ll have to buy something at an AS retailer if they want the two hours of free parking, which many have become accustomed.
According to an AS sign posted on the site, shoppers will need to receive a validation card from a retailer post-purchase to get that most expected of modern day conveniences – free parking! New Atlantic Station management is also painting parts of the underground parking deck in festive colors as part of a $2.5 million overhaul.
One must assume that such a policy targets loiterers and cruisers, who have long made it difficult for AS to develop the upscale image it seeks. It will be interesting to see what impact such a policy will have. Sure, you just need to buy something inexpensive to get a parking validation, but for most, even that is enough hassle to justify going elsewhere. Of course, that doesn’t apply to just loiterers, but also shoppers with no specific intents to buy.
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Like I needed another reason not to go.
Wonder if they consider returning something sufficient for validation card… I feel like this can only hurt business…
What happens if you get a ticket at this place and don’t pay? It’s not the same as a parking ticket in the city of Atlanta – correct? (I was along one of the side streets definitely within the complex). The ticket is from the parking company and not the city – right?
Back in Nov of ’09 I went Christmas shopping on a Sunday. All kinds of empty spaces that cold afternoon and certainly no loiterers – way too cold. I couldn’t have been there even two hours but came out to a ticket on my windshield after having bought way too much stuff at several stores. Don’t remember if there was some way to have the ticket dismissed if I showed that I had purchased from a merchant.
Haven’t been back. Will probably never go back (why risk getting booted?).
Really haven’t thought about the place since.
Anyway – after reading this post, well I guess I’ve really shown them, haven’t I?
Wow. This is bad. I had high hopes after the new owners were reaching out to the community, asking what kinds of retail and restaurants people wanted there… This is certainly a step in the wrong direction. It’s hard to feel a place is a “real part of town” when there are hourly parking meters there that are marked “24 hours a day.” I always wondered how you could live there and have visitors or a party without charging your friends parking.
I agree with all the comments here. Haven’t been there in months, and it never even enters my mind to go there for any reason.
It didn’t take long for AS to turn into another Buckhead (in Buckhead’s ill-fated later years). I understand what management is trying to do to encourage shopping over loitering, but I can’t see it working (and most likely backfiring).
These type of open-air malls always charge for parking in LA. ‘Free Parking’ just seems to be a part of the Atlanta culture. That said, Decaturites have no need for Atlantic Station beyond Ikea.
Clearly an attempt to keep the loiterers away but in all likelihood they’ll just park over at the Target deck across the street.
I wonder if the food truck vendors will be validating parking. The food truck events they’ve had here have been pretty popular. I went to one a couple of weeks ago for lunch with my wife and we were impressed, though I do prefer the similar events at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market.
My original distaste for Atlantic Station has subsided over the years. I can’t feel too bad about a development that’s given me an IKEA (about 2/3 of our home furnishings came from here) and a Target. I remember the days when there was pretty much no place in Midtown to buy things like underwear. They could rename this place Underpants & IKEA Station.
I went to AS once, and that was enough. However, as far as the Free Parking issue goes…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.html
I think this is a step in the right direction.
Over the years I have pretty much accumulated most of the clothing I *need* and usually only shop and graze. If I see something I like, then great, but I rarely go out on a specific mission to buy something clothing or decor related. Some days I walk away after spending a few bucks, or some days nothing. You can’t find anything there, that you couldn’t find at Lenox so I’m not really down for paying for parking when I could the same things without that elsewhere. (Hey look, they’re idea worked!)
If it were cold, or raining, and I didn’t know if I were going to be doing any actual purchasing, that’s three strikes on the against list.
It was pretty during the Holidays, but cold. The chocolate shop is about the only thing I would really rave about there.
Whew, there were some serious typos going on there!
Can’t wait til DM gives us the ability edit our posts, along with that fancy new “search” function that’s coming any day now I hope!
I’ve only ever gone over there for Ikea or when it had the most convenient time for a particular movie. In general I don’t have a problem with this type of policy as it still seems to result in effectively free parking. The larger issue is bringing in new tenants that will make it worthwhile to go over there. I hope that the new owners are successful in that effort as it has been such a high profile project with tremendous unrealized potential.
Let me know if they start paying people to come.
I avoid Atlantic Station BECAUSE of the parking – I’m sure not going to rush over there if I have to pay for it. The deck underneath makes no sense to me and I spend way too much time lost. I agree with Rebeccab, there just isn’t anything at AS that I can’t find elsewhere and the prospect of paying doesn’t encourage me to try there first.
It’s going to be a dollar an hour people … and that is if you go there and buy nothing.
Why should parking be completely free?
A friend who use to work in the city planning office told me that the construction cost of each parking space at Atlantic Station was between $30,000 and $40,000. If they don’t charge for parking, that cost gets rolled into rents and passed on to the consumer. For those who walk or bike, they end up subsidizing those who drive when parking is free. Sure the sidewalks and bike racks aren’t free but not thirty to forty thousand dollars for each person. This happens anywhere that has free parking but is a bigger deal when the cost per parking space is high.
But I doubt this is really about recovering the cost of parking. I think it is more about discouraging loitering. Atlanta has a terrible lack of safe and interesting places for teenagers and those in their early twenties to hang out, especially for those of limited income. So when a place appears that allows for this, it gets overwhelmed. It happened in Buckhead and is happening in Atlantic Station. That’s too bad because that vast majority of those who are loitering just want to hang out with friends, have fun and not bother anyone. But as we all know, get enough people in that age group together and you end up with someone trying to show off or prove themself to be greater than everyone else. Even a small token amount charge for parking will reduce those loitering. It’s too bad that those who are injecting life into the development are going to be run off, but just the same, it isn’t Atlantic Station’s responsibility to provide a hangout for the city’s entire population of youngsters. We need many such places but sadly that isn’t likely to happen.
What would be safe, healthy alternatives? Are there examples from other cities?