Riverside hopes valet parking will help downtown businesses

Riverside is trying to make it easier for people to park their cars while they’re visiting downtown, in an attempt give businesses there a shot in the arm.

The Downtown Valet Program began a six-month tryout January 16 and is scheduled to run through June 30, at which point the city council will decide whether to make the program permanent, according to city officials.

The weekend valet service, which will feature uniformed attendants provided by ACE Parking in San Diego, will make it easier for people to visit restaurants, entertainment venues and downtown businesses.

Riverside manages about 80 percent of the city’s downtown parking, according to Erik Lue, Riverside’s public parking services manager.

That consists of five parking garages, nine parking lots and approximately 1,500 street spaces, roughly 4,000 spaces in all.

Despite that, parking issues interrupt the flow of traffic downtown, a common problem in any large city.

“We’ve been hearing for years that it’s too difficult to park downtown,” Lue said. “The valet program will bring the parking to the people. It’s not just for one bar or restaurant. It’s for everyone.”

Riverside officials decided this was one project better suited for the public sector.

“Normally, we would help each business set up its own program, but if we did that it would be too confusing,” Lue said. “We would have to issue parking permits for every business, and there would be different valet companies operating all over the city. We want one program that serves all of downtown.”

The city council approved the pilot program in September, 2024. Thirteen months later it reached an agreement with ACE Parking, which manages more than 500 parking facilities nationwide.

The program includes:

• A valet drop-off and pick-up at high-traffic downtown zones that will operate from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Right now, five valet stations are being used, but that number could be reduced to four, or even three, Lue said.
• A no-ticket system that will allow customers to request and pay for a parking space with their smart phone, eliminating the need for paper tickets or cash;
• Uniformed attendants who will help keep automobiles moving, reducing congestion and making it easier to move around downtown;
• Onsite management for better security, and parking rates of $20 on regular days and $30 for special events;
• Vehicles may be parked at one valet station and delivered to another, giving people more freedom to explore downtown during their visit;

The valet program should to lead to more visits, longer stays in restaurants and shops, and more repeat visits, according to Lue.

Downtown Riverside has much to offer – the Main Street Pedestrian Mall, the weekly Farmers Market, and the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn, held every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, and the Fox Performing Arts Center are both cultural entities that draw people downtown, an area bordered by the Mission Inn to the north, University Avenue to the south, Lemon Street to the east and Market Street to the west, according to Lue.

The valet program has the endorsement of the Riverside Downtown Partnership, a not-for profit organization that works with the city and other not-for-profits to improve the quality of life in downtown Riverside.

The partnership has been in favor of the valet program since it was first proposed, and it’s following the pilot-program closely to see how well it lines up with the needs of downtown merchants, said Janice Penner, the organization’s executive director.

Penner’s immediate goal is to make sure that, during the next six months, parking services gets data that will help it determine if the program is succeeding, and where adjustments might need to be made.
“If you can eliminate an obstacle that makes it easier for people to come downtown and dine or shop, that’s a good thing. I think many of our restaurants will start to (use) the program once they become more familiar with it.”

Lue and the public parking services division spent about 18 months working on the program, which is not based on any other municipal parking program.

“A lot of downtown stakeholders have asked for something like this,” Lue said. “We heard it over and over. We knew we needed something better than self-parking, and we decided that valet was the best option.”

ACE Parking will staff and operate the program, but it will not work for the city.

“They provide feedback, and I talk to them on a daily basis, but they were not involved in the planning,” Lue said of ACE Parking. “They have to get everything approved by us if they want to do something.”

ACE Parking generates about $100 million in revenue annually, according to the company’s website.

The program has already received its first tweak, when lights were installed at the valet stands to make them more visible.

“Right when the pilot program started, we noticed they were too dark,” Lue said.

Any revenue generated by the valet program will go into the city’s parking fund, but the goal behind that program is not to make money.

“We want this to be cost-neutral, and we want to have control over it so we can maintain its quality,” Lue said. “But the bottom line is this is a work in progress. We’re still figuring out the traffic flows, and that will take a while.”