Patchogue Valet Company Pitches Service to Westhampton Beach Village Board

Summer nights on Main Street in Westhampton Beach can feel like a dream come true for residents and visitors alike.

Dinner in a fine dining establishment, a show at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, shopping at the various shops that dot the business district and a stroll along Main Street can make for a magical night in the South Fork’s westernmost “Hampton” — especially now, since the village’s recent redevelopment has brought scores more people out to the vibrant tourist hot spot.

But finding parking along Main Street — with its two-hour limits — or in the handful of municipal lots can quickly put a damper on the evening, with cars circling for extended periods looking for a free space, creating congestion.

One company based in Patchogue wants to help, and its owners think they might have a solution for people who want to visit the village but don’t want to take a ride share or enter the seemingly endless loop of cars circling for a spot.

Bryan Monahan, the founder and CEO of Check Valet-Parking Solutions, and his team, co-founder Maresa Crecca and business development associate Jake Marino, would like to bring their valet service to the village. He met with the Village Board last Thursday, June 1, to talk about what they offer.

Board members liked the idea and said they would work with the firm to get them operating in the village — perhaps as early as next month.

The company operates with partnerships on two levels: It partners with local restaurants that would offer the valet service as part of their reservation process, and it would partner with owners of after-hours commercial parking lots that would lease out underutilized spaces to park their clients’ cars.

Monahan said he was currently in discussions with Zach Epley to lease parking space in the 80-car lot at the Seafield Center on Main Street. The village also would consider allowing the company to utilize the Rogers Beach lot.

“We do have parking issues, and we would like to cooperate as best as we can,” Deputy Mayor Ralph Urban said. “We can try to work something out.”

Basically, when someone made a reservation at a local eatery, the restaurant would offer the valet service. As the customer arrives at the restaurant, a valet, donned in a purple uniform, would take possession of the car and drive it to the leased lot.

Once the meal was over, Check Valet would be notified by either the customer or the restaurant through a call or text message — they’re currently developing a phone-based app — and the car would be retrieved. Clients could also meet the valet at the parking lot or other drop-off point, hop in the backseat and let the valet drive them to their destination before returning to the lot to park the car.

Monahan said his company also may try to form partnerships with the Performing Arts Center or other appropriate businesses.

To keep Main Street clear while valets are picking up or dropping off cars, the Village Board members suggested that the company might want to, instead, set up a pick-up/drop-off point at a less busy location, and even said they might provide a home base of sorts in one of the municipal lots in an area squared off for dumpsters.

The cost of the service would run between $30 and $40, Monahan said. The company also would offer a “safe home” service, for an added fee, in the event that the car owner indulged a little too much and needed a ride home. The valet would drive them home, leaving the car with its owner — as opposed to taking an Uber, in which case the car would be left overnight in a strange location.

As for drivers, Monahan said he would implement a program to hire “collegiate student-athletes,” as they are disciplined team players that customers would be comfortable handing the keys of their cars to. He said he would offer tuition assistance to the drivers and let customers offer tips that would go toward the drivers’ tuitions, which he would match.

Monahan said the vision for the company came to him on a bustling Friday night this past January when he was walking his dog in his home village of Patchogue.

“Between all the horns, and the swearing and everything else, I realized that there was an issue here,” he told the board. “I was able to recall the lessons I learned by reading ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki. See a problem, create a solution to it. And that’s when Check Valet was born.”

He said his vision for the company was a bold one. “I want to compete with Uber one day,” he said. “Uber changed the way the world travels. Why can’t we just change the way people park?”