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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
5.8 Developers
An increasing number of developers and property managers around North
America are becoming interested in car-sharing. This is especially true for
new housing and mixed-use developments. There are also several com-
mercial developments, such as the Bank of America Tower in Seattle, which
have incorporated car-sharing successfully.
Goals and Benefits
Car-sharing provides several benefits to developers and property managers,
including the following:
· It is an amenity to residents and tenants, particularly for those
without a car. One developer pointed to competitive pressure; in
some urban markets, car-sharing may be becoming a standard
amenity in new apartment buildings. It is an amenity for the de-
veloper as well, since car-sharing is a turnkey solution with little
involvement from the developer. Some developers also mention
that car-sharing will help marketing the development, but that it is
not their main motivation.
· It promotes sustainability and corporate citizenship. Forest
City Enterprises in Denver, CO sees car-sharing as a contribution
to sustainability, which is one of the firm's eight core corporate
values. In Seattle, Equity Office Properties considers promotion
of car-sharing as part of its obligation as a good corporate citi-
zen. It has a wider interest in improving transportation, in order
to maintain the accessibility and attractiveness of its properties
downtown. Car-sharing can also help developers gain LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
At present, car-sharing is not formally incorporated in the LEED
rating system, although some projects such as Hillsdale Library
in Multnomah County, Oregon have used car-sharing to gain an
innovation credit. However, draft LEED proposals would formally
incorporate car-sharing into the alternative transportation credits
(US Green Building Council, 2004).
· It can be used as a parking mitigation. By introducing car-shar-
ing, some developers have been able to reduce the number of
parking spaces required by parking ordinances. For instance, the
Gaia Building in Berkeley has 91 apartments and 10,000 square
feet of commercial space, but only 40 parking spaces. (More
details of car-sharing's relationship to the development process
are provided in Section 5.5 earlier in this chapter.) There is also
a financial incentive to developers who incorporate car-sharing
to reduce parking requirements. A Canadian survey respondent
mentions that the cost savings to developers from reduced park-
ing $20,000 per stall far outweigh the cost of car-sharing. He
stated that one developer received a variance to provide 100 fewer
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Chapter 5 · The Role of Partners
stalls for an investment in car-sharing of just $50,000, plus a mem-
bership purchase.
Finding a Partner
Often, partnerships have been established through the developer making
contact with a local car-sharing operator to establish a partnership. Most
operators, however, see the development market as an important new source
of growth and have made significant outreach efforts to attract developers.
City CarShare in San Francisco, for example, has placed articles in profes-
sional journals for developers and spoken at industry conferences such as one
organized by the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.
Non-profit organizations can also play a role in encouraging developers to
adopt car-sharing. In San Francisco, the Housing Action Coalition endorses
residential projects that meet its criteria, in order to help them gain plan-
ning approval. One criterion is the incorporation of City CarShare into a
development.
Types of Support
Parking is the main support provided by developers and property managers.
Some developers also invest financially, for example in locations where car-
sharing may not be commercially viable. Administrative support, however,
is usually not required, since this is handled by the car-sharing operator. As
with employers, the turnkey nature of car-sharing services is a key attraction
to developers and property managers.
Marketing
Most developers and property managers have a vested interest in making
car-sharing work in their complexes and are therefore keen to promote the
service. This is particularly true for those that provide financial support, but
also for other developers who risk losing a service if it is not used enough
to be commercially viable.
Marketing techniques include newsletters, promotional material posted in
leasing/management offices, and website information. JSM at its Venezia
Apartments complex in Santa Monica, CA, promotes car-sharing to a wider
audience through signage on the exterior of the building.
Equity Office Properties manages the Bank of America Tower in Seattle, WA,
and promotes Flexcar as part of its Commute Options Program (Exhibit 5-
24). Equity offers each company in the building $250 to get signed up and
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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
driving with Flexcar. It also helped make a major marketing push when
the service first began, with cleaning staff leaving material on employee
desks overnight, and promotional messages on LED signs in elevators. Ac-
cording to Equity, property managers have a particular role in promoting
car-sharing to smaller employers who may not be subject to trip reduction
or similar TDM legislation.
Car-sharing in a new development
can also be an indirect marketing
tool in itself, in that car-sharing
helps to promote the development.
Bruno Wall at Wall Financial Cor-
poration in Vancouver, BC states
that bringing car-sharing into one of
his new developments, the Electric
Avenue Condominiums, has not
needed any extra marketing. In fact,
the development "is probably more
well-known now because of this
green and creative idea." In another
Canadian example, AutoShare's
website features details of condo-
minium projects where it provides Exhibit 5-24 Equity Properties in Seattle has
established a Commute Option Program for its Bank
service. of America Tower.
Parking
Most developers and property managers provide free parking for the car-
sharing vehicles that are placed in their complexes, either because it is an
amenity to the residents or because it is part of a development agreement
for reduced parking. The vehicles are typically located in spaces with high
visibility and access, to encourage non-users and to further promote the
concept. If the car-sharing operator is a non-profit organization, the value
of these spaces is tax deductible.
Most often the car-sharing vehicles are used not only by tenants, but by all
members of the car-sharing organization, in order to maximize utilization.
A major concern for many developers is how non-tenants get access to the
vehicles that are placed in secure garages. Partly for this reason, Forest City
Enterprises stresses the need to consider the location of parking for car-shar-
ing during the development phase, when issues such as garage access and
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Chapter 5 · The Role of Partners
overall parking ratios can be considered.
There are different solutions to this problem. Citizens' Housing and Pan-
oramic Interests (Exhibit 5-25) are two developers in the San Francisco Bay
Area that have incorporated car-sharing into their mixed-use developments,
in exchange for more flexible parking requirements. Non-resident members
can use their City CarShare fob to access the garages. Flexcar in Washington,
DC and Seattle, WA uses the same technique. A manager in Los Angeles lets
non-resident Flexcar members receive the access code to the building when
booking the car online.
Financial
In most cases, developments that
incorporate car-sharing are lo-
cated in neighborhoods where the
service is commercially viable.
Sometimes, however, financial in-
centives may be necessary in order
to convince a car-sharing operator
to provide service in less favorable
locations, or to reduce tenants' bar-
riers to joining.
A US example is the Buckman
Heights development in Portland,
Photo: City CarShare
OR. The developer of this 144-unit
mixed-use project agreed for the
first year to cover the operational
costs of two CarSharing Portland Exhibit 5-25 City CarShare vehicle entering
vehicles available to tenants. Panoramic Interests' Gaia Building in Berkeley, CA.
Another reason for financial support may be to waive or reduce the require-
ment for deposits, which can pose a barrier to tenants signing up. UBC
Properties has given a grant to the University Neighborhoods Association
in Vancouver, British Columbia. The grant will be used to subsidize 50%
of the $500 membership fee for the Cooperative Auto Network (CAN).
Wall Financial in Vancouver has gone one step further and offered to actu-
ally buy the first seven vehicles for CAN in order to get around the $500
membership fee. CAN would then manage these vehicles like any other
CAN vehicle. By doing so, the condominium owners avoid the need to join
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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
the cooperative and thus only pay a $20 registration fee rather than a $500
membership share.
Some of the most extensive examples come from European developers.
For example, a 250-unit car-free housing development in Vienna, Austria
Autofreie Mutersiedlung Floridsdorf has only 25 parking spaces, which
are exclusively for car-sharing vehicles. Residents have free membership in
the car-sharing club for the first year, to which 57% of the households have
subscribed. The complex is also situated near public transit.
Memberships
Another form of support for car-sharing involves subsidizing membership
fees. This may be necessary to convince a car-sharing operator to provide
service, be required as a condition of a development agreement, or sim-
ply provided voluntarily as a tenant amenity. Developers of a residential
property in Victoria will provide two cars and permanent parking stalls for
them, and will purchase a membership for each unit. The membership will
be assigned in perpetuity to the unit, not to the current occupants. Other
developers follow suit. When the Electric Avenue Condominiums, a 456-
unit complex in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, opens in summer
2005, the condo owners will be offered affiliated membership in CAN, a
non-profit car-sharing organization.
Again, Europe provides some of the most far-reaching examples. Developers
in Freiberg, Germany subsidize a one-year free pass on all public transit and
a 50% discount on train tickets when residents join the car-sharing club.
Some property managers have corporate accounts and use the service in
the same way as any other employer. For instance, Equity Office Proper-
ties in Seattle, WA is a corporate member and uses car-sharing vehicles for
business.
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