Daytime valet parking is coming to downtown Aspen in an effort to free up spaces in the commercial core during peak times.<\/p>\n
The service, offered by the city of Aspen’s new provider, Ameristar Parking Solutions (APS), will begin on Friday, said Mitch Osur<\/a>, the city’s director of parking.<\/p>\n The cost will be roughly the same as what it costs at the meter, and during peak times, it will be lower. Introductory rates are $12 for the first two hours, $3 for additional hours and $18 for a maximum daily rate. Daily service begins at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n Nighttime valet service also will be available at a flat rate of $12 after 5 p.m. until midnight.<\/p>\n The city signed Florida-based APS on for a three-year contract after a request for proposals went out earlier this fall.<\/p>\n APS won out over Denver-based Jay’s Valet, which had been providing valet service for the past 10 years in Aspen.<\/p>\n Osur said APS had more ideas that lined up with his objectives in managing parking in the downtown core, particularly the daytime valet services.<\/p>\n “I specifically asked for creative ideas since valet has not been successful in this town,” he said. “And they came in with a much lower price.”<\/p>\n APS will charge half the price of Jay’s; it cost $25 to valet a car at night before the new contract was signed.<\/p>\n APS also plans to do valet services at the gondola beginning the week of Christmas. For $40, people can leave their car with the valet set up on Durant Avenue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n Osur said if it’s popular, APS would offer the service on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays after the holidays.<\/p>\n “The gondola service is not a price thing but a convenience thing,” he said.<\/p>\n The daily and nighttime valet operation will be set up where it has been in the past, in front of the Caribou Club on Hopkins Avenue.<\/a><\/p>\n “Let’s take three or four [parking] spots for valet and turn them into 20 spots,” Osur said of asking people to valet their vehicles instead of parking<\/a> them in the downtown core.<\/p>\n APS will park the cars in the Rio Grande parking garage, which does not see capacity in the winter, Osur noted.<\/p>\n The summer is busier and the parking department will have to assess how to accommodate more vehicles in the garage if the valet services becomes popular.<\/p>\n Osur said APS will pay the city $3 for every car parked in the garage, which was the same arrangement with Jay’s.<\/p>\n “There is no subsidy whatsoever,” he said.<\/p>\n APS also floated ideas about subscription services and monthly passes that could be purchased in the future.<\/p>\n The parking management company, which operates in a lot of malls around the country, also offers a variety of customized valet services to restaurants, hotels, businesses and private groups and residences in the valley.<\/p>\n “Everything is an experiment,” Osur said. “We have the right tools now so we will put our best foot forward.”<\/p>\nRecommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n