Venetian Bay, a huge community in New Smyrna Beach, will soon begin charging customers to use the shops and restaurants in the town center, according to merchants. Thomas Greiner, owner of Happy Deli, a sandwich shop in Venetian Bay, said he has been operating at the location for almost 10 years. “We live here, we work here,” Greiner said. “We can’t afford to keep paying more and more just to get customers to come.” Greiner said customers have never had to pay for parking before, but in the coming weeks, the developer plans to charge everyone $2.50 an hour. Merchants say drivers will scan a QR code to download an app and pay for parking. They worry that seniors and visitors won’t know their way around the site. Greiner said the developer is doing the initiative in part to promote a healthy lifestyle. “If you don’t want to pay for parking, walk or bike,” Greiner said, quoting the developer as saying. “I get a lot of retirees coming into my store, so if it’s 95 degrees outside, they’re not going to walk,” Greiner said. Greiner said he was told by the developer that the paid parking was meant to keep residents from parking on the street because new apartments are going up directly across from his store. He worries that paid parking will drive customers away. Eileen Roman said she probably won’t go to the area as often if the change goes into effect. “I can’t imagine paying them that,” Roman said. “It’s awful that they’re charging that.” Katie Liller, owner of The Spa, said businesses could choose to pay more than $10,000 a year for approval of customer parking. “They have to figure out other ways to save money to be able to do this,” Liller said. “But, you know, we’ve also heard, ‘Oh, I’m scared to go back because my store is going out of business.’ It’s not true, but it certainly hurts a little bit.” Meanwhile, Greiner said paying $10,000 a year would force her to raise prices. “That means paying $10 for a soda. It’s ridiculous,” Greiner said. “We would never do that, or we’d have to foot the bill ourselves. Either way, it affects our bottom line. It affects everybody.” Business owners say paid parking is expected to start in early September, but will likely be delayed until October until they can finish installing signage and technology to make it work. We’ve reached out to the developer for comment and will update this web story if we hear back.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. —
Venetian Bay, a mega-community in New Smyrna Beach, will soon begin charging customers to use the shops and restaurants in the town center, business owners say.
Thomas Greiner, owner of Happy Deli, a sandwich shop in Venetian Bay, said he’s been in business at the location for almost 10 years.
“We live here, we work here,” Greiner said, “and we can’t afford to keep paying more and more just to get people to come.”
Greiner said users have never had to pay for parking before, but in the coming weeks the developers plan to start charging $2.50 an hour.
Business owners say drivers will now be able to scan a QR code to download an app and pay for parking, and they worry that seniors and visitors won’t know how to use the parking lots.
Greiner said the developers also did this to promote healthy lifestyles.
“If you don’t want to pay to park, walk or bike,” Greiner said, quoting the developer: “I get a lot of retirees coming into my store, and they’re not going to walk when it’s 95 degrees outside,” Greiner said.
Greiner said new apartment buildings are going up directly opposite his store and the developer told him the paid parking was to discourage residents from parking on the street.
He worries paid parking will drive customers away. Eileen Roman said she probably won’t frequent the area as often if the change goes into effect.
“I can’t imagine paying them that,” Roman said. “It’s horrible that they would charge that.”
Spa owner Katie Liller said businesses can choose to pay more than $10,000 a year to enable parking for customers.
“We’re going to have to figure out other ways to save money to make that happen,” Liller said, “but I’ve also heard people say, ‘Oh my God, they’re going out of business, I’m scared to go,’ and that’s not actually the case, but it’s definitely going to hurt us a little bit.”
Meanwhile, Greiner said paying $10,000 a year would force him to raise prices.
“Then you’re paying $10 for a soda. That’s ridiculous,” Greiner said. “We would never do that. Or would we have to foot the bill ourselves? Either way, it’s going to affect our bottom line. It’s going to affect everybody.”
Paid parking is scheduled to begin in early September but will likely be pushed back to October as work gets underway to install signage and technology to make it work, business owners said.
We’ve reached out to the developer for comment and will update this web story if we hear back.
