The parking garage of the future opens in Cologne: mobility and service hub for cyclists and motorists in the district

Completely barrierless, ticketless and cashless – plus innovative services

Clouth 104: “Neighborhood 4.0” in Cologne’s Nippes district redefines mobility
License plate number instead of ticket: just drive in and out – digital payment without looking for change; parking, car sharing, e-charging stations and perfect service for cyclists
Smart operating concept makes parking garages more economical and more attractive

Hamburg / Berlin / Munich, 21 September 2020:

The basic parking garage is a thing of the past – the first mobility hub is opening in Cologne at the start of September and is set to catch on. It not only has parking for drivers and cyclists, it also provides a comprehensive service and mobility offering – without barriers, tickets or the need to look for small change. The operating concept from KairosRed, PPP, and epay also opens up new opportunities for property owners and managers.

The Hamburg-based company KairosRed is implementing „Clouth 104“, an innovative “Neighborhood 4.0” district development, on a former industrial site – and this now also includes a new kind of uncomplicated mobility concept. It is open to tenants, future hotel and event visitors, and the entire neighborhood and combines parking spaces for cars and bicycles, car sharing, and e-charging stations. In the future, there will also be lockers and a repair service on call for cyclists.

KairosRed is developing and realizing the Clouth 104 building complex as a pioneering smart city concept, which includes offices, co-working spaces, a hotel, event spaces, artists’ studios, a day care center, shopping facilities, bars and restaurants, and many other services that will connect and revitalize the whole surrounding district.

The district’s new parking garage will play a key role as a mobility and service hub: KairosRed brought ParkenPropertyPartner and payment service provider epay together for the first time to implement the parking garage of the future without tickets, barriers and cash.

Completely barrierless and cashless parking – this is how it works:

Cameras automatically record the vehicle’s license plate number from in front and behind while driving into the parking garage. This data is stored in accordance with GDPR requirements for the duration of the stay and then immediately deleted after payment.
The system autonomously differentiates between long-term and short-term parkers.
For long-term parkers, the system automatically matches the period of use with the respective long-term parking price, which the customer can select via an app.
Short-term parkers have to type in their license number using a touchscreen on the payment terminal before leaving the parking garage.
They can pay by cashless and contactless payment methods such as debit or credit cards or a smart phone, choosing from common current payment methods such as Google Pay or Apple Pay.
Payment expert epay processes payment transactions and handles authentication with the customer’s bank automatically, securely, and in real time through its processing platform and handles the reporting and billing with the property operator or owner.
Non-payers are sent a written payment request through vehicle owner identification via a largely automated process.

The three companies KairosRed, ParkenpropertyPartner and epay now want to jointly develop the market for innovative mobility solutions

The mobility hub in Cologne is to be a model for a new generation of parking garages that can also be easily implemented in existing buildings. For property owners, but also for urban developers, this opens up new opportunities. The parking garage is becoming more versatile, more intelligent, safer, and more attractive – and also more economical to operate, as no defect-prone barriers, tickets, or coin-operated machines are involved.

A camera automatically registers the user’s license plate number on entry. Short-term parkers pay at a terminal by smart phone, credit card or debit card by entering their license number. Long-term parkers receive a monthly bill from the service company KairosBlue. Cashless and contactless payment have been on trend for a long time and, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, have become more popular than ever for hygiene reasons.

Office tenants or event organizers can also go online or use a smart phone app to register their visitors for free parking in a predefined time window.

As the managing director of the project developer KairosRed and operating company KairosBlue, Andreas Gerhardt wants to offer more mobility hubs based on the Cologne model throughout Germany:

“Mobility hubs are the modern answer to the city’s changing mobility needs; they transform the anxiety-inducing parking garage into a lively, people-friendly destination that individuals like to visit. We are opening up the garage to a wider range of user groups, and it is becoming more relevant for urban society. This way, it is not only possible to sustainably revitalize existing properties but also to make smarter use of parking areas that would otherwise be uneconomic due to low usage – this includes, for example, trade fair parking facilities that stand empty for a large part of the year.”

– Andreas Gerhardt,
managing directorKairosRed

“The pioneering Cologne project is a perfect example of the potential that parking garages have if you upgrade them with smart technologies and use concepts. Everyone benefits from this – the property owner, users, and everyone in the city. We’re delighted to be able to contribute our know-how on digital processes concerning the operation of barrierless and cashless free-flow parking areas to this project.”

– Daniel Kardolsky,
managing director of ParkenPropertyPartner GmbH from Berlin, commented,

“We’re connecting urban mobility with modern payment options in a flexible way for the property sector and its customers. Once established, the interface to our processing platform, through which we securely process more than 1.54 billion payment transactions globally last year, also enables us to handle future payment types and further services. In addition, our software makes customer-specific configuration of billing and reporting options possible.”

– Sebastian Anslinger,
Director of Payment at payment service provider epay, which is based in Planegg near Munich, said,

About ParkenPropertyPartner GmbH

ParkenPropertyPartner GmbH is the first Germany-wide parking expert and has skilled and passionate professionals in the field of stationary traffic. A mix of young, innovative game-changers and experienced specialists in the parking segment. We work as a partnership in the team with a large network in order to provide reliable and tailor-made solutions for our customers.

www.parkenpropertypartner.de

About KairosRed Unternehmensgruppe

As the partner of property owners, companies, towns, cities, and local government, KairosRed provides advice and support for all development stages in order to rethink, solidly finance, intelligently revitalize, sustainably build, and manage spaces, buildings, and districts for the future. The company KairosBlue für Vital Assets ensures the reliable functioning of buildings and interaction between users, residents, neighbors, and partners. KairosGreen Indoor Farming GmbH researches, tests, and implements innovative methods for producing crops in the city.

KairosLAB is the partner of research institutions and start-ups and works at the interface of technology, sociology, philosophy, future research, art, architecture and design.

www.kairosred.eu

About epay

epay is a world-leading full-service provider for payment processing and prepaid solutions that processed 1.5 billion transactions in 2019. epay has built a comprehensive dealer network of 732,000 point-of-sale terminals in 54 countries to connect well-known brands with consumers around the world.

The company offers a portfolio of gift cards (prepaid, closed loop and digital media), business incentives and payment solutions (card acceptance, terminals, e-commerce, mobile and Internet of Payment) for omnichannel commerce, and offers its services thanks to its proprietary cash register integration software.

epay is a segment of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), a Kansas-based company that generated sales of 2.7 billion dollars in 2019 and serves customers in 170 countries.

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