Imperial Parking-Embarcadero Center Garage

Parked here the other day while dining upstairs at the Embacadero and it was a mediocre experience. The garage is located beneath 4 Embacadero and features uneven interlocking stones before going to the loading zone one level below then entering the parking garage one further level below.

With the uneven interlocking stones as a "welcome" to the garage, might be a good idea to bring a truck to avoid scratching the undercarriage of the compact rice rocket!

The parking garage itself has a couple levels, B and C (which is not accessible by elevator). The parking spaces itself along with the drive lanes were extremely tiny and compact. Definitely leave the lorry at home and bring a super compact vehicle! Parking sensors along with the 360 camera will be super duper helpful!

Validation is available when dining at full service restaurants.

Upon returning to my compact rice rocket, the payment terminal had trouble processing my NFC payment. As the parking garage seems to be fully automated, I managed to pay for parking by using my physical credit card... (There is a help button on the payment island in case one needs assistance?)

When exiting the parking garage, there is a driving test as the exit gate is on a steep incline! One can either burn the clutch on the manual transmission rice rocket or hold the car with the emergency hand brake hoping that one doesn't roll back too far or stall!

Don't park at Embarcadero 3.
I really disappointed.
I'm local person. No valuable item inside a car.
However it happened.

San Francisco has tons of fun places to see and things to do. Looking for parking is not one of them. Before the pandemic we would often spend a few nights in the city for a staycation. Nowadays in the midst of a pandemic and an occasional kid-free Friday afternoon we still prefer to driving to BART.

Our go-to parking lot these days is 4 Embarcadero with the entrance off Clay Street. Its definitely expensive, and not too hard to reach the $35 daily flat rate, even after a few hours. Like most SF lots, spaces tend to be tight with pillars everywhere.

There's plenty to love about this lot though:
1. Safe and clean, and well lighted
2. Right next to Ferry Building and Hyatt Regency. We like to have lunch at Hog Island Oyster and coffee afterwards at Red Bay. Hyatt Regency's lobby is great for relaxing and they have clean restrooms open to the public.
3. An efficient ticketing system so you don't need to deal with attendants or wait in line to pay.
4. No issues entering or exiting the lot, unlike those busy lots in Union Square.

Good parking if you're going to The landmark Cinema. They validate. Convenient on a Friday afternoon at 5 pm. Darn expensive otherwise.

I have been attending the building lighting ceremony and been shopping at the Embarcadero Center for the past 10+ years due to the convenience of 4 hours of free holiday parking during the weekends that they readily advertise for the holiday season.

A few weeks back, we encountered an issue where we were told that certain validations does not qualify for the free parking. We naturally had gotten the validation from the first store we made a purchase from which was See's at Embarcadero 3 which happened to be a stamped validation. We have in the past years received both the machine stamped validation and the sticker validations from them which we never had any problems getting free parking as long as it was under 4 hours.

In the brochure for the building lighting it states that as long as you spend at least $5 from any restaurant and store, you will get free 4 hours of parking but doesn't specify what stores have machine stamped and which stores have stickers. We spent over $20 at See's and stayed for under 2 hours and had to pay.

Short of asking each store when we enter if they offer the free 4 hour holiday parking sticker vs. the regular validated parking rate, how are customers to know which stores qualify and which stores do not. Again, in the past, we have had both types of validations and never had problems with it as long as it was during the holiday season weekends. I have contacted them right after it happened but it's been over 2 weeks with no response so this experience left a bad taste in my mouth meaning no more shopping or parking at Embarcadero again for me.

So warning holiday shoppers, you better make sure you ask for the sticker validation before you shop there or better yet, just go to the mall.

Parked at 1pm for a lunch meeting. Departed the garage at 2:33pm. Total cost: $24!!

Let's do the math here. An hour-and-a-half of temporary car storage = $8/30minutes. That's freakin' insane! My parking fee was higher than my lunch bill!

Parking at the Embarcadero Center Garage = getting screwed in your car with your pants on.

Never again.

I ate at a participating restaurant called Harborview who claims to validate for the first four hours on weekends. After spending 15minutes trying to figure out the garage pay system and with no parking attendants on site I was forced to pay $6 to leave the garage. I have contacted the garage management and I am disputing this charge.

Even if it was not for the payment issue this place has cramped driving areas and smells like a dumpster. I would have taken street parking over this mini dumpster smelling maze.

I'm not sure why people diss this parking garage. What do you expect out of a parking garage? It's a freakin' garage to park your car and get on with your business!

This garage is rated at least 2 or more for the following reasons:
1. It's clean. I've never seen a homeless guy here or smelled urine or feces in the corners.

2. The weekend deals are great. You park there, go to one of the shops and spend about 10 bucks (some decent restaurants there) and your first 2 hours are free and hour 3 and 4 are 2 bucks. Plenty of time to go to the Ferry Building and do your thing.

3. As some person mentioned already, you can watch a movie there and get free parking. For the poster who whined about having to pay premium there because they forgot to validate, keep that to yourself. We're rating the place, not your ability (or inability) to remember.

4. The garage is relatively safe. Obviously you can't expect Fort Knox, so I don't know what all the bitching is about. As a woman, I've never felt 100% safe in any parking garage. Just be vigilant and you should be okay.

5. Plenty of spaces - some parking garages for touristy like places fill up fast and you're stuck driving around and around and around for 45 minutes (which is being charged on your parking ticket) until you find a spot. This spot has plenty of spaces and I usually find a spot within 10 minutes or less. Yes the spaces are small and yes there are a lot of pillars, but if you can't park a car in these spaces, either learn to drive or don't drive at all. I'm an Asian woman for goodness sake and even I can do it.

Why the garage is bad:
1. Yes, it's dank. Yes, it's dark in some places. It's a freakin' parking garage, did we forget that?

2. Expensive without the normal weekend deals or validation. If you HAVE to be in the financial district and HAVE to drive, then yes, it's expensive. Figure out why you HAVE to drive, it's SF with great public transportation for goodness sake. You can always park a mile away and get better deals and the exercise if you want to.

The poles are just awfully laid out and made traversing the parking garage a challenge

$2.75 for 15 minutes. Validation lasts only 1 hour.

Good lord....you max out in less than three hours your day fee of $29.50 Validation only last 3 hours so you still max out if you're there for a while.

Go after 5pm...validate your ticket at the "selected" locations for four hours. Best time to park there....evenings.

Boo Embarcadero parking lot!!!

You suck.