JLL launches dedicated Car Park Solutions team

JLL’s Car Park Solutions team has been launched to identify, unlock and enhance car parks through providing end-to-end solutions that will seek to optimise, repurpose/reposition, or redevelop these assets, opening up opportunities to either enhance income or unlock value that support wider regeneration plans in towns and cities.

The multi-disciplinary team, led by Colin Chan, Asset Repositioning Director and Head of Car Park Solutions, has entered into a number of strategic partnerships, leveraging JLL’s internal expertise and joining forces with other organisations. These partnerships are with Town Centre Parking, chartered surveyors specialising in parking and mobility; and CallisonRTKL, a global architecture and design practise.

A key catalyst for the focus on car parks is attributed to the expected structural change of decline in car ownership and usage within the urban landscape over the coming decades, and the knock-on effect on demand for parking. This shift means that suboptimal assets will be subject to higher risks of loss in income and capital value. Research undertaken by JLL revealed there are over 23,000 car parks across the UK, 80% of these are surface car parks, many are currently being underutilised. The majority of these car parks are owned by the public sector which lies the opportunity to unlock and enhance these assets.

This investment theme is not unique to the UK and JLL is quickly establishing a successful track record in advising and repositioning car parks internationally. At One Post Office Square in Boston, Massachusetts it advised on the transformation of an underutilised multi-storey car park that is set to deliver circa 80,000 sq ft of prime office space within the central financial district. The project will also retain its car parking facilities, becoming Boston’s first automated car park, providing volume efficiencies by creating maximum capacity within minimum space. Across the UK, JLL have advised on over 50 car parks located in prime city/ town centres and at major transport hubs.

Colin Chan, Asset Repositioning Director and Head of Car Park Solutions, said the creation of the team represents a significant opportunity: “We have created Car Park Solutions to provide clients with a dedicated team to help them tap into the wider JLL network, so they have the right people and services at their disposal as the wider context around car parks rapidly changes. I believe car parks were part of the solution for our towns and cities across the UK in the last century. With a bit of work, they can be a big part of the solution for the next century in tackling social, economic, and environmental issues we face ahead of us.”

Alistair Meadows, Head of Life Sciences & Alternatives, Capital Markets EMEA at JLL added, “The launch of our dedicated car park solutions team is an exciting chapter for JLL and our clients. Driven by our data & research, UK wide car park opportunities exist to be unlocked for re-positioning and re-development. This opens up potential alternative, mixed uses including housing, urban logistics, life sciences, and self-storage.”