John Daniels is the general manager of Central Parking System’s Jacksonville office and regional manager of USA Parking. He transferred here in September from Washington, D.C.
WHAT DOES HE DO?
“As general manager, I oversee the finances for the city: profit, contracts, complaints, training, clients, customer service and new business. My responsibility is to make sure everybody is happy and that our employees are taken care of.” Roughly 7,000 parking spaces are under his watch.
HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN WITH THE COMPANY?
“Almost 10 years. I started in Cincinnati as the assistant valet manager for the Omni and Hyatt. I was the area operations manager for Central Parking in Ohio. After I moved from Columbus, I was part of the operational excellence team which traveled to different cities to help with clients, to help with new operations, to do audits, to increase the bottom line and customer satisfaction. Then I was operations manager in D.C.”
HOW BIG IS CENTRAL
PARKING SYSTEM?
“Central Parking Systems is an international company. They purchased USA about a year or so ago. Central is the largest parking company in the world. Because we’re so big, we can offer many different types of services. We can build a garage for you. We’ll do the consulting, the design of it and the architectural structuring. We’ll finance it; we’ll lease it.”
HOW DOES JACKSONVILLE DIFFER FROM D.C.?
“The big difference is the traffic, the volume of people coming into downtown. They have people coming in from Maryland, from Virginia, all converging. It took me an hour and a half to go the same distance to get to work there as it takes 20 minutes here. Downtown D.C. is very tight for parking so the rates are much higher. Monthly parking in the core of downtown is between $180 and $230. Here, the rates for surface lots are $2 a day. It’s a different market here. With parkers in D.C., there is a lot of transient turnover. In Jacksonville, most people stay all day.”
WHY JACKSONVILLE?
“I always wanted to move to Florida because I love warm weather. I don’t miss the snow.”
WHAT IS CENTRAL PARKING DOING TO ADDRESS PARKING ISSUES?
“There are a lot of aspects we’re changing within the company. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here — to change the appearance of Jacksonville and how parking is thought of here. We have a lot of parking lots here that were just empty lots where they tore down buildings. Signage and so forth had not been kept up. I’m working with the City, Downtown Vision, the committees and the Chamber to find any way we can to be a part of making parking in Jacksonville easier, more accessible and have the best rates. Right now we’re talking with the committees to see what’s the best parking plan for downtown. The City has RFPs out to improve parking and help downtown.”
WHAT PERSONALLY DO YOU THINK SHOULD HAPPEN?
“What we need to have in place is a good grid system with signage and directionals to make it easy and accessible for people to get different places. Traffic flow is going to be the key thing for the Super Bowl. We have to have the proper controls set up, otherwise it will be a nightmare.”
WHAT ABOUT IN THE MEANTIME?
“They’ve got to build new garages. Quite a few lots will be closing because of the new county courthouse. They need to look at the on-street parking. Right now, we are under market. If you park on the street and get a ticket, it’s a $5 charge. In all the surrounding cities, they are charging $15-20. That’s one thing that hinders our visitors and newcomers to downtown. If they became competitive, what that will do for the city is free up space for visitors and free up revenue they could use for other things. I think the City is looking into that. They do realize this is an issue.”
HOMETOWN
Columbus, Ohio.
EDUCATION
Daniels has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from God’s Bible School in Cincinnati.
FAMILY
Daniels lives in Mandarin with his wife Debbie and their infant son Austin.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JACKSONVILLE?
“It’s night and day from the D.C. hustle and bustle. My wife and I love it. It’s neat to be part of downtown and watch it grow. There will be a lot of things going on in Jacksonville within the next three years, especially in the downtown area where parking is in high demand. There’s going to be a new face for Jacksonville.”
HOBBIES
Basketball, fishing, golfing and anything else that gets him outdoors. He loves steak and the epic film “Braveheart.”
WHY GO INTO THIS FIELD?
“You get to meet many new people. It’s never the same and you get the opportunity to grow with a city, help solve that city’s problems and be part of the community. Plus, it pays pretty well.”
WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE NOW?
“Developing relationships. When you first come into a new city, you’re learning who the players are. Once you break in, it makes things a lot easier.”
WHAT IMPACT WILL DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION HAVE ON CENTRAL?
“There may be a tickle down effect but not a big one. My main concern is to get enough parking for people downtown. With the courthouse, a number of lots will disappear so we won’t see a revenue jump — they’ll just be moved to a different location.”
— by Monica Chamness