Festival Place’s Neil Churchill discuss the importance of getting the car park right
In today’s world, consumers expect a quick and effortless service. According to Neil Churchill, centre director of Shopping Centre Festival Place (Basingstoke), parking has to reflect these changes given that it is often the first thing visitors experience when they go shopping.
He believes that changes to the retail landscape post-pandemic have shed light on the importance of car parking as a consistent and generally predictable revenue stream for shopping centre owners and operators, but despite being such an important function of the asset, car parks are often overlooked when it comes to investment.
“As anyone who has spent time circling a car park looking for an available space can testify, the visitor experience generally starts at the car park – and can be both positively and negatively impacted by it,” he points out. “Wayfinding, smart technology and well-lit spaces can all contribute to a positive first impression whereas cramped spaces, dark corridors and badly maintained facilities can have the opposite effect and can even act as a disincentive to visit a given location.”
As a town centre location with a wide catchment area, Churchill says they have always been acutely aware of the role of parking in Festival Place’s ongoing success, which is why one of its major capital expenditure projects pre-pandemic was a multimillion-pound refurbishment of the car park. “The existing facilities were out of date and fell short of the wider retail and leisure experience and more recent technological advances,” he tells. The result, he says, is a clean, modern, light and intelligent car park which ‘truly enhances’ visitors’ experience.
Throughout the destination’s car park, the bays have been made wider to allow more spaces and comfort for people parking and exiting their vehicles with ease. Parking bay monitoring sensors have been installed to allow customers to easily see from their vehicles what bays are available, or occupied, eventually helping them park more efficiently.
Four car finding kiosks have also been installed within the shopping centre, in the proximity of the lifts leading to the car park, where customers can enter their registration and will then be pinpointed to the location of their vehicle. In addition, six free-to-use electric charging units have been installed and are available 24/7, the usage of which Churchill says is growing exponentially, and now there are plans for the destination to accelerate its charging unit expansion programme.
Proving that the investment was worthwhile are Festival Place’s car park experiencing a 12% increase in revenue, attracting almost 2 million visitors in 2019, its recently awarded Park Mark Plus Award, and the highly-commended certificate for Car Park of the Year it was awarded at the 2021 SCEPTRE Awards.
“While shopping centres and the shopping experience in general will continue to evolve to reflect people’s new habits, car park facilities should no longer be seen as secondary to the asset but a rather essential part of it,” says Churchill. “They will continue to evolve to meet the needs of customers, especially around further ease of access, frictionless parking, and electric vehicles charging capacity – all things Festival Place is currently researching and reviewing.”
This was first published in Retail Destination Fortnightly. Click here to subscribe.
