Owners of Bridgewater Commons Mall develop parking app

BRIDGEWATER, New Jersey (WABC) -- 'Tis the season for holiday shopping, which often means bright tail lights and long lines of cars wrapping around mall parking lots like garland.

To help spread more holiday cheer, the owners of Bridgewater Commons are rolling out a new parking app. With the help of heat maps and GPS data, the app shows shoppers in real time when parking spaces become available.

It's called the GGP Malls app, and it's fairly simple to navigate. Once you plug in your location, it shows you an entire grid of open parking spaces nearby.

"Mall traffic continues to rise, and during peak shopping seasons, such as holiday and back to school, parking continues to be one of the largest pain points," said Scott Morey, General Growth Properties executive vice president of technology and marketing. "We're always looking for opportunities to incorporate technology within our portfolio to elevate the shopping experience. Providing more options for parking and promoting valet services are two ways we're changing the parking landscape for our shoppers. Combined with our new technology, this solution is leading the way in providing shoppers with convenient and reliable parking locations."

You can look for spaces near your favorite store, or search which times of day have less mall traffic than others.

The app is still relatively new, but a lot of shoppers seem to be interested. It can be downloaded at

For more information, visit Smart.link/577fdde83302d.