It will cost a few bucks to park at Cherry Creek Shopping Center starting Jan. 17, the day gates come down on all 10 entrances to the garage and surface lots at the regional mall.

Parking won’t break the bank – the first hour is free, the second is $3, the third is another $1 and each hour thereafter runs another $2. And some businesses will validate – the AMC Cherry Creek 8 theater inside the mall, and Elway’s, The Container Store, Brio Tuscan Grill and Boulder Running Company, which sit outside the shopping center Another handful of retailers have inquired about validation, mall general manager Nick LeMasters said.

Valet service will continue to operate as it does today

But there’s a big change ahead for people who have viewed the 5,001 spots at the mall as a place to ditch the car when they head to work or shop in neighboring Cherry Creek North or pick up the 83L RTD bus to get to jobs in downtown Denver, LeMasters said.

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Battlelines drawn over redevelopment of Cherry Creek North “For a quarter of a century, we have been the free option,” LeMasters said. “Some have taken advantage of it.”

Since the new Cherry Creek Area Plan was adopted four years ago, increasing the commercial and residential density in the neighborhood across East Second Avenue, prime parking has been filled by cars that don’t necessarily belong to people shopping at the mall. With two hotels, two condo buildings and two more apartment buildings on the verge of opening and two major parcels slated for seven-story office buildings on the slate, the mall needed to protect the parking that gets paying customers into its stores.

“We want to keep the most desirable parking available for the customer,” LeMasters said. “When those spots are taken, that’s a car that doesn’t move all day. You want to turn those spaces over. When they don’t, it has an impact on revenue.”

Cherry Creek Shopping Center parent Taubman Properties made a big investment in a high-tech solution it calls “smart parking.”

“At the end of the day, we think the investment will be well worth it. It’s a smart program and an intelligent approach to making sure people can park seamlessly and efficiently,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence in the technology. We are anxious to get it rolled out.

Here’s how it works:

• Customers will pull a ticket at the gate to the lot. By the time you pull a ticket, cameras will have recorded your license plate and time of arrival and embedded the information in the ticket. This information lets the shopping center keep track of how long you’ve been parked and how much you’ll pay when you exit.

• Monument signs near the lot entrances will help shoppers strategize, showing which floors in the parking garage have the most spots available. Inside the garage, lights on the ceiling will tell shoppers where spots are available. Look for green lights, or blue, if you have a handicap-parking placard or plate.

• Take the parking ticket with you into the mall. When you’re done shopping, you’ll pay at one of 27 kiosks in the mall placed at what LeMasters described as “very convenient, obtrusive locations.” Put your ticket in the kiosk, pay, and you’re on your way.

• While the idea is to get as many people as possible to pay at the in-mall kiosks, you can still pay at the exit gate.

• If you forgot where you parked, the smart parking system is there to help. “We have a find-my-car application – available on your phone,” LeMasters said. The app will scan the system and tell you where your vehicle is parked. He said it works even if you can remember only two consecutive figures or digits of your license plate. And for what it’s worth, LeMasters has tested the car-finder function and says it works well.