‘Smart’ public parking to open at Ward Village

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Parking stalls are marked by lights on the ceiling, with green indicating a stall is vacant. Once a car turns into the stall and parks, the light will turn red.

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PARKASSIST.COM

Parking stalls are marked by lights on the ceiling, with green indicating a stall is vacant. Once a car turns into the stall and parks, the light will turn red.

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Shoppers at Ward Village in Kakaako are set to have more public parking today that offsets losses to condominium tower development in recent years — and the new stalls will use cameras to improve traffic flow and security.

The developer of the property is set to open 384 free parking stalls today in the base of the Ae‘o condo tower still under construction. And by June, when a Whole Foods store is scheduled to open on the site, another 336 stalls will open exclusively for customers of the natural foods store.

Stalls slated to open today on parking levels four through six will soon be linked to a computerized system of 205 cameras mounted to garage ceilings that will indicate through visible red or green lights whether spaces are occupied or unoccupied, reducing the effort by drivers to find open stalls.

Ward Village owner and developer Howard Hughes Corp. said the camera system, when activated in about two months, will be the first such camera-based parking garage management system to be used in Hawaii.

The system is made by Park Assist, a subsidiary of TKH Group NV, a technology company based in the Netherlands.

In addition to improving the flow of vehicles, the Park Assist system will enhance security, Hughes Corp. officials said.

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“The structure utilizes the latest camera-based technology designed to reduce waits, improve traffic flow and enhance security to our guests,” Todd Apo, vice president of community development at Ward Village, said in a statement.

The garage is slated to open by 11 a.m. today. Public stalls in the Ae‘o tower will be open daily thereafter from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. No overnight parking is allowed.

New stalls will replace many stalls lost when construction started on the Ae‘o site, which used to be home to Nordstrom Rack and Office Depot stores.

Two other towers completed in the last two years, Anaha and Waiea, also replaced ground-level parking at the property formerly known as Ward Centers. Hughes Corp. recently finished demolishing Ward Warehouse, which included many ground-level parking stalls, though a parking garage next to that complex remains open for public use.