BART and Blinq Want to Fuse Transit With Shopping
While riding on BART gives you time to squeeze in a little work before work, the leaders behind the train network hope you'll start squeezing in other things as well—like laundry or grocery shopping.
SRS Real Estate Partners is partnering with Blinq to offer retail in modular pods at 44 Bay Area stations. BART also is seeking tenants for more permanent retail space. Commuters will be able to use the Blinq mobile app service together with the pods to arrange their transit stops to coordinate with errands, to get discounts to events or purchase products, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.
Blinq is partnering with several local companies to offer a variety of options, such as organic food from Grubmarket, cosmetics from EO and dry cleaning services. The pods—and services—could start as early as next week at the San Francisco Embarcadero and Montgomery stations. Five more stations could join before the end of the year.
The exploration of station opportunities doesn't end with retail. As the system extends into Silicon Valley, there are discussions underway to build offices or homes on property the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority owns. [SVBJ]
