By Lindsay Peyton

West Seattle will serve as the launching pad for GarageHop, a collaborative parking startup.

The brand new company has set its sights on reducing parking woes and while protecting the environment – and has selected the apartment complex Residences 3295, located at 3295 SW Avalon Way, as its first partner.

“We’re a home for your car,” the property’s community manager Jonathan Allen said.

By joining with GarageHop, Residences 3295 can now to rent out parking spots that otherwise would have sat vacant.

And members are able to keep their cars in an assigned place, secure and accessible at all times.

The company is the brainchild of Hélène Costa de Beauregard, who noticed an excess number of empty parking spots in her downtown apartment complex after moving to Seattle three years ago.

“At that time, I thought it was just a fact of life,” she said. “But then I started digging around.”

Costa de Beauregard soon discovered that about 30 percent of emissions in any city is created by drivers searching for a place to parking. With a background in environmental studies, this fact concerned her.

She was also aware of the many frustrated Seattle residents who struggled to find parking spots. Some apartment buildings did not have enough, while others had too many, she said.

“And parking is a huge cost for a building,” she said. “It can impact the rent of the tenants. I thought that maybe there was an opportunity here, one that could use this untapped inventory.”

Still, Costa de Beauregard realized she had a major challenge. “I’m not a tech person at all,” she said. “I needed to find a partner who would believe in this project.”

It wasn’t long before she found her ideal business partner – Jay Beavers, who had a 20-year career at Microsoft.

“I was looking for an opportunity to do something fresh and new,” he said. “I thought Hélène had a great vision, and I wanted to join forces with her.”

The two started brainstorming last December. “One of the biggest challenges was learning about the apartment building industry and how all of that works,” Beavers said. “Neither of us had worked in parking or multi-family dwellings before.”

He then began to develop the software – a website and app that would allow users to sign in and access parking garages.

“Jay is such a great software developer,” Costa de Beauregard said. “He worked on the app itself, while I focused on business development.”

Eventually, they had a well thought-out product. With the help of the app, smartphones can actually act like a fob and allow users to hit a button on the phone to open a garage door.

All members have to do to sign up is go online, create an account, fill out an application and select a spot.

Costa de Beauregard said the next step was finding an apartment complex willing to try the service out.

She contacted Allen, and he wrote back right away.

“It was something different, something unique,” Allen said. “I was gung ho about it, because it benefitted everyone in the area.”

He explained that there are not a lot of places to park nearby. GarageHop allows non-residents to park in the building and ride the C Line to downtown, basically serving as their own private park-and-ride.

Allen said business owners could use the service for their employees and similarly, people who work in the Junction would also enjoy the convenience of nearby covered parking.

Beavers said the GarageHop service can help promote public transit – and make more efficient use of existing parking garages.

“We’re making parking more convenient to drivers,” he said. “We’re making parking smarter.”

Leases cost $135 per month – and contracts are month-to-month.

“We want to make this as easy as possible for people and for property managers,” Costa de Beauregard said.

She and Beavers launched their business on Friday, Dec. 9. They hope the first venture is successful, allowing their service to expand around the city – and beyond.

For more information, visit www.trygaragehop.com. Demos are available online at https://youtu.be/iDQQM37aWRw and www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0WbtCX6FQ