Parking charges at Century Square

58,391 Views | 260 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Cyp0111
MsC2012
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AG
Maybe this is a dumb question but if you have to pre-pay how do you get it validated after that. Does the restaurant credit your bill?
UmustBKidding
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If you would just break down and use the monorail instead of taking your car everywhere it would not be a problem.
FlyRod
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Quote:

The GM of Whatabuger is watching this closely. If it is successful, they are thinking about charging $3 to park and $1.50 to use the drive-through.


I assume you jest, but it wouldn't surprise me if other businesses are watching to see if they can get away with this. They will lose my business as well.
Captn_Ag05
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Has anyone else that emailed gotten a response? I'm wondering if they are sending out the same canned answers or are rethinking their practice?
australopithecus robustus
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Yeah just speculating what the developer might be thinking.

Again, I don't see the value.
Cholula Verde
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Third party vendor! BMA connections.
motherrunnersBCS
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There has to be more to this, because it makes no sense. I can see it during home game days, perhaps, to try to keep out the game parkers. But Cebtury Square will lose too much of their local market. What will happen once football season is over? What will happen over breaks and in the summer? Will Century Square become one of those places we patronize only when the students are mostly gone, because they will have to drop the parking charge to stay alive? I have lived where I have had to have validated parking or show a receipt from the mall, but this does not sound like they are set up to do that. Hmm. Have not been to Century Square, and may not, at this rate.
AggiePhil
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#makeparkingfreeagain
AggieBarstool
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Captn_Ag05 said:

Has anyone else that emailed gotten a response? I'm wondering if they are sending out the same canned answers or are rethinking their practice?
Nope.

I also emailed my contact at Valencia Group (who's managing the two hotels) to see if she knows anything and/or will put pressure on the developers for a response.
jja79
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Jtayers23 said:

It's worth noting that City Centre in Houston, owned by the same people, is doing the same thing. Sad that places like that cannot adapt to their environment. I understand paid parking in Houston, but not here.


I'm at City Centre often and have never seen a paid parking spot.
Chef Demas 2020
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I believe parking on the street is paid but the garage is actually free, no matter how long you are parked there. Could be wrong though, I haven't been out there in a few months.
CHEN Ag 2019
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Apparently, at some point over the summer, the parking garage became paid parking
kraut
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Scrolling through CityCentre on google earth - looks like parking kiosks along the street parking:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7795107,-95.5606504,3a,75y,229.97h,89.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6scyCyhD7bkTQEmpPiRiZA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

ratfacemcdougal
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Why not just pay the parking guy to keep students out and let Cool Hand Luke take care of the meters.
soso33
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Sometimes parking can be a real cool hand.
jrhmc
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Captn_Ag05 said:

Has anyone else that emailed gotten a response? I'm wondering if they are sending out the same canned answers or are rethinking their practice?
This is their reply on my Facebook post.

"We appreciate the feedback. Yes, prime parking is currently metered, but other nonmetered parking is currently available at Century Square. In addition, the garage at Century Square will be free for the first thirty minutes. Some tenants will validate parking & there will be free "short-term" parking spaces spread throughout the center for restaurant take-out and quick retail pickups. Being located on Texas A&M's campus it is necessary to optimize convenient parking options for patrons looking to make quick trips & to differentiate between university student parking."

Thirty minutes of free garage parking is useless.
jello123
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I contacted Century Square via their FB page and their reply to my question regarding parking fees was:

Hi there -

Thanks for your message! Yes, prime parking is currently metered, but other nonmetered parking is currently available at Century Square. In addition, the garage at Century Square will be free for the first thirty minutes. Some tenants will validate parking & there will be free "short-term" parking spaces spread throughout the center for restaurant take-out and quick retail pickups. Being located on Texas A&M's campus, it is necessary to optimize convenient parking options for patrons looking to make quick trips & to differentiate between university student parking!

-Century Square Team
Captn_Ag05
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Garbage.
jello123
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KBTX Reported:
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (KBTX) - For those looking to shop or eat at any of the establishments at Century Square across from campus, you will have to pay to park.
New parking meters were installed Monday night.
According to a press release from Century Square representatives, the street parking will be $3 for the first hour, with a $2 increase for every hour after that. There will be a daily max of $25 for more than four hours of parking.
For the parking garage, the first 30 minutes are free, but then $1 every 30 minutes after that. The daily max in the garage is $10.
For employees at Century Square, the parking will remain free.
Free short term parking will be made available for those looking to make quick stops or picking up carry out.
In the release, Century Square says the purpose of the parking meters is to keep parking available to patrons of their business. They also want to deter people from parking there during events or classes on campus.
A manager for Hopdoddy Burger Bar says that he knew that the parking meters were a possibility, but he was only told that the meters would be built a few days ago. He fears that they will hurt the businesses at Century Square, and people seem to agree.
"In the long run it is only going to hurt the restaurants," says Erik Urquidi, a student at A&M who was shopping at Century Square Tuesday. "Cause with so many restaurants why would I want to pay for parking when I could just go down the street and get free parking."
Urquidi didn't even know that the parking meters were even in place. He says that there weren't any signs in place to alert him of the new rules.
As a warning, cars that didn't pay the parking fees were attached with a notice on their windshield that let drivers know they need to pay for their spot.
People were not fined today, but it is unclear when that grace period will come to an end.
jja79
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I was there a couple of weeks ago and parked free in one of the garages.

I'm out for Century Square.
techno-ag
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Quote:

For employees at Century Square, the parking will remain free.
It should be free for everybody.
unmade bed
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so is parking going to be restricted to customers only? If they are charging to park, how are they going to turn away students or TAMU visitors as long as the student/visitor is willing to pay?

Seems to me that charging is actually going to facilitate the problem they claim to be trying to avoid. They should make parking for "customers only, all others will be towed", and let tow trucks continue to make a killing off of dumb students. But since they didn't do that, I can't help but think this is a money grab for owners and nothing more. Shame.
UmustBKidding
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I sure hope they are remitting the appropriate sales tax for all this cash they are collecting.
wendyb
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I just sent email to century square letting them know we are not going to hop doddy tomorrow because of the parking charge.

I also called hop doddy to let them know why we won't be coming. They were not informed when they signed lease that century square would be charging parking.

Shame on century square!
Captn_Ag05
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wendyb said:


Shame on century square!


More like No Sense-ury Square.
powerbelly
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wendyb said:

I just sent email to century square letting them know we are not going to hop doddy tomorrow because of the parking charge.

I also called hop doddy to let them know why we won't be coming. They were not informed when they signed lease that century square would be charging parking.

Shame on century square!
I think letting the stores/restaurants know that they are missing on you business will be more effective than just letting the landlord know.
armymom
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No reply yet from email I sent yesterday. But that is okay. I won't be eating there anyway when there are other places just as good with free parking.
Delmar Berry
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Spoke to the manager at Hopdoddy today. He said that in a couple of weeks everyone will forget and eat there anyway. Just sayin.
ksp
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armymom said:

No reply yet from email I sent yesterday. But that is okay. I won't be eating there anyway when there are other places just as good with free parking.
He under estimates the tightness of us folk around here
ratfacemcdougal
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If I forget they are charging for parking, I will be reminded when I pull in the parking lot and turn around and head back out. Though with those crazy prices...I will not forget that.
ksp
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Me either rat. Thats crazy
txgardengirl
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Why do I have this crazy hunch that the mybcs crowd will avoid the center but the students and professionals in the area will just chunk down $3-5 to park right in front of the business they want to go to

/who moved the college station cheese??/
James Russell
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At this point, they shouldn't bother breaking ground on the movie theater. With two other movie theaters already in this town, how many butts do they think they can get in seats to pay for dinner and a movie after paying to park? Something something no merit raises...
DBSwooper
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txgardengirl said:

Why do I have this crazy hunch that the mybcs crowd will avoid the center but the students and professionals in the area will just chunk down $3-5 to park right in front of the business they want to go to

/who moved the college station cheese??/
Who says that the people on the Aggieland board aren't successful professionals who also think paying for parking in this situation is unwarranted?
techno-ag
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txgardengirl said:

Why do I have this crazy hunch that the mybcs crowd will avoid the center but the students and professionals in the area will just chunk down $3-5 to park right in front of the business they want to go to

/who moved the college station cheese??/
A contrarian post, wow. Well you go ahead and plop down the extra $$$. The rest of us will eat elsewhere and park for free.
 
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