East Brunswick makes deal to make money off underused parking deck
EAST BRUNSWICK – The township has made a deal to make money from empty parking spaces at its Transportation and Commerce Center on Old Bridge Turnpike.
Open Road Mazda of East Brunswick on Route 18 has agreed to pay the township $3,500 per month to lease 75 parking spaces on the sixth floor of the underutilized facility.
The spaces will be used to store the dealership's inventory.
"This is just an increased way or creative way to bring in some additional revenue to the parking utility, especially because people just really haven't returned to working in New York," said Township Administrator Joseph Criscuolo.
Use of the parking garage took a hit during COVID when people were working at home, and it hasn't fully recovered.
"As everybody knows the revenues into the parking utility haven't recovered as fast as we would like to, so we've been in touch with some people that utilize a large amount of parking in their lots and are getting back to the point of pre-pandemic," Criscuolo said.
Open Road Mazda contacted the township and said it was interested in renting spaces in the deck, he said.
"The cars will be dropped off at the Mazda dealership," he said. "Their staff will bring it to the parking deck and park the cars on that particular floor. They will all be brand-new cars that will be parked there and when they are needed to be retrieved, the same thing would happen."
The Mazda dealership may even want to lease 100 spaces, Criscuolo said.
The dealer's one-year contract with the township begins June 1.
The dealer has also agreed to indemnify the township and provide an insurance policy, Criscuolo said. He also said the township agreed to Open Road sending a security vehicle to the garage to make sure everything is "copacetic."
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The township also operates a park-and-ride facility, the Neilson Plaza deck, at 7 Tower Center Blvd.
To generate more commuter use of the facility, the township has been working with Coach USA to add additional buses on the route, Criscuolo said.
But the bus company has a shortage of drivers.
Coach USA will be holding a job fair 2 to 6 p.m. June 22 at the Transportation and Commerce Center, said Dan Rodriguez, vice president of public affairs for Coach USA.
"This will benefit East Brunswick as it will assure we will have the necessary workforce to be able to meet the needs of community and the passengers of the various lines we service there," Rodriguez said.
The shortage of drivers is not unique to Coach USA.
"As it relates to driver shortages, it’s an issue being felt across the state and nation," Rodriguez said. "Some of it had to do with drivers retiring during and immediately following the pandemic, that was compounded by the high number of available jobs versus the pool of available employees."
"We have Coach employees, drivers and others who have or will be celebrating 50 years with the company, many have been with the company over 10 years and more," he said. "It’s a great career with great benefits with a great company."
Ridership is actually increasing, and the township has been getting letters from residents who are actually upset that there is not more availability and more routes to and from the city, Mayor Brad Cohen said.
"I believe it will get better, but in the meantime contracts and deals like this, which we can use to fill up the deck, is a great way of trying to be able to meet our obligations and not ultimately have it fall on the taxpayers," Cohen said.
"This is a great arrangement," Councilwoman Dana Winston said. "It's a win, win."
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com
Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: East Brunswick NJ rents out parking deck underused since COVID
