Jersey City’s Leading Parking Consultants

New York Waterway & Public Transportation

As a result of the growing economy and population, transportation access has become an important focus for officials in Jersey City. The city has invested significant capital to upgrade the public transit network to unify New Jersey. However, since public transit does not adequately serve every suburb, driving a vehicle is still the main way that residents get around. According to Forbes, Jersey City is one of America’s “Top Public Transportation Cities.”

Jersey City has four main public transit modes:

• New York Waterway Ferry – New York Waterway, a privately owned ferry service company, operates from Hoboken, Weehawken, and Jersey City, and provides access to several locations along the west side of Manhattan including Midtown, the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan, and Pier 11/Wall Street. The Hoboken and Jersey City ferry terminals are conveniently located adjacent to NJ Transit, Light Rail, and PATH stations. There are four ferry stops in Jersey City: Newport, Liberty Harbor, Liberty Landing Marina, and Paulus Hook. In addition, busses service these terminals during rush hour every 15 to 30 minutes. Once in New York, free private shuttle busses are provided throughout downtown and midtown Manhattan as a continuation of the ferry service. There are New Jersey residents that drive to the site of the ferry each day to make their way into work in New York City for the day. These people are parking nearby and received a discounted ferry pass for having to pay for both parking and ferry access.
• Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) – The PATH system provides subway and train lines to New York City with service to Midtown and Downtown Manhattan. On the New Jersey side of the river, PATH stations are located in Hoboken, Jersey City (Exchange Place, Newport, Grove Street, and Journal Square), Harrison, and Newark. Furthermore, the PATH connects with Amtrak’s northeast corridor (Boston to Washington) in both Newark’s and Manhattan’s Penn Station. It offers the convenience of 24/7 rail transportation for access to New York City’s employers, cultural amenities, attractions, and nightlife. The Jersey City locations offer non-stop access to Wall Street in under 5 minutes; a tremendous selling point that cannot be replicated without being located in Manhattan itself.
• Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) – The light rail is a 21-mile system that operates 24/7 along the Hudson River from Bayonne to Weehawken and North Bergen. The rail has 33 stations that transports people from the dense residential communities along the waterfront to the Newport and Exchange Place economic hubs with connections to PATH.
• New Jersey Transit Trains – The rail service operates five commuter train lines from Hoboken Terminal. These direct lines provide service to most of the major cities throughout northern New Jersey, including Newark Penn Station, Secaucus Junction Transfer Station, and more, as well as several points in Rockland County, New York. There is direct access into Hoboken and New York’s Penn station at all train stops. All main lines feed into Hoboken, and several connect farther into New York’s Penn Station. Rail transportation to central and southern New Jersey is available by transferring in Secaucus/Newark, with service to Princeton, Trenton, Atlantic City, and points along the New Jersey shore.

It is critical to understand the importance of alternative modes of transportation available in a city and the affect that they have on a parking asset. Jersey City is a large commuter city and there are parking discounts in Jersey City as well as tax-exempt monthly parking for residents. If there are alternative ways of accessing a city or building, that will have an impact on parking performance. Parking Advisors specializes in ways to market our client’s assets in the best and simplest ways to obtain new parkers and retain the parkers that were already parking in the garage.

Union Wages & Burden

• Most, if not all parking employees are members of a union. Jersey City’s parking union is the Local 272.
• The union contracts have strict salary and benefit/burden increases, along with increased time off with seniority.
• For example, minimum wage in New Jersey is currently at $12.00 per hour and is scheduled to go up $1.00 per hour every January 1^stuntil it reaches $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2024. Accordingly, wages alone require budgeting of approximately 8.33% annual increase ($12.00 per hour to $13.00 per hour in 2022). The welfare price is $2.68/hour, with an anticipated increase of $0.10 per hour.
• Union wages increased $0.35 on March 8, 2021. Welfare contributions increased from $2.58 per hour to $2.68 per hour on March 1, 2021.
• Parking Advisors believes it is important to analyze wage rates and burden costs when doing an analysis in order to understand how contracts will affect long term value of the asset.