Why a Pink Elephant?
When Vern and Patty Kowalski bought this lot in 2004 it was a gravel yard with a portable toilet and a reader board that said PARK $6. Patty said the place needed something people could describe to a taxi driver. Vern, who grew up in Seattle when the pink elephant on the car wash sign downtown was the landmark you gave directions by, had the answer and the sign company's number by Friday.
Twelve years later the gravel is asphalt, the reader board is a garage, and "the pink elephant lot" is what half our customers call us anyway, which was exactly the idea.
The Short Version
- 2004 — Kowalskis buy the lot: 4 acres, gravel, one shuttle, a Ford Econoline with a heater on one side
- 2007 — first corporate account (still with us), lot paved, second van
- 2010 — bought the neighboring 7 acres from the RV dealership that folded
- 2013 — the garage opens: three levels, 340 stalls, financed by the bank branch whose manager parks here
- 2015 — full repave, LED lighting, camera system rebuilt; son Mike Kowalski takes over day-to-day
- 2016 — four vans, 1,040 stalls, 19 employees, and the elephant got repainted for her birthday
How We Run the Place
Mike's rule, taped inside the booth: "Nobody misses a flight because of us." Everything else — the loop timing, the staffed booth, the jump packs on the cart, the extra van on holidays — falls out of that one sentence. When we blow it (it's happened; ask about the 2012 van fire, everyone here will), we cover the cab and the parking's free. That policy has cost us $340 in twelve years, which tells you how often it's needed.
The People
Nineteen of us: booth staff, drivers, the wash crew, Renee on accounts, and Mike, who still plows the lot himself when it snows because he doesn't trust anyone else with the new asphalt. Average tenure is a bit over six years. Rosa at the booth has waved through some of the same faces every other Monday since 2005 and knows their gate assignments before they do.