The Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center complex includes 428 guest rooms, over 180,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and four independent restaurants, as well as two adjacent office buildings totaling over a half-million square feet. These land uses are supported by a three-story underground parking garage of over 2,300 spaces, seventeen access lanes, and eight pay-on-foot machines. When the Seaport Companies retained DESMAN, the existing Parking Access and Revenue Control Systems (PARCS) equipment were reaching the end of its service life and subject to regular malfunctions and failures.

Teaming with DEC Parking, DESMAN undertook a comprehensive review of current operations to identify the critical functions the new equipment should be ready to meet with Seaport stakeholders and developed a description of the new system’s design and features and an estimate of the cost.  The proposed system design called for replacement of all existing PARCS components plus inclusion of a comprehensive valet parking management system; integration with third-party reservation systems; integration with hotel’s folio system to allow guests to use their room key card as an access credential; a full-service validation system that include off-line and on-line components; a state-of-the-art Automated Parking Guidance System (APGS) that would provide for space-by-space availability monitoring and license plate recognition (LPR); payment and access via smartphone Bluetooth; and a comprehensive data analytics program.

Working with multiple departments within the client’s organization, DESMAN and DEC developed a technical specification and bid documents and administered the bid process from initiation through award, receiving and evaluating five bids with total values ranging from $1.22M to $3.06M. As part of the engagement, DESMAN scheduled and managed interviews for the three finalists and negotiated the best and final offer from each.