Gallery of Profits

Who says art and commerce don’t mix?

The overwhelming demand to peruse six centuries of paintings, etchings and decorative arts at the new Getty Center in Brentwood has spawned a cottage industry engaged in shuttling visitors unable to park at the hilltop complex.

More than 57,000 art lovers without parking reservations have been turned away from the museum’s lots since it opened in December, and the spillover has kept cash registers humming at a handful of nearby businesses that have launched park-and-ride services to pick up the slack.

“It’s been a smashing success for us since day one,” said Kim Schnell, director of sales for the Brentwood Holiday Inn, which so far has made more than $100,000 off its Getty shuttle service. “It’s basically found money.”

The hotel, which charges $10 per vehicle, parks an average of 100 museum-bound cars a day and, in turn, shuttles about 200 people to and from the facility’s ivy-covered entrance at an additional cost of $5 per person. Unlike the museum, no reservations are required. Before the Getty, the hotel’s 200-space parking lot was mostly idle. “During the day, we’d only have 10 to 15 cars outside of employees,” Schnell said. “It was easy for us to open up the parking lot. It was dead space otherwise.”

The rush of visitors has also boosted sales at the hotel’s tower-top restaurant, which looks directly onto the Getty. Seating is up at every meal on museum days, and reservations for catered parties have even seen a bounce.

“These people probably wouldn’t have stepped foot in here before,” Schnell said. “The Getty for us is the cherry on top of the cake.”

Less than two miles away, however, two rival shuttle companies have had to share the museum’s desserts in an impromptu partnership. Westside Limousine and Royal Dynasty Tours rent separate sections of the same parking lot on the grounds of the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Brentwood. The hitch, however, is that the same driveway feeds both services.

But instead of squabbling, principals of both companies agreed to honor each other’s advertising fliers, and motorists who arrive with one or the other are flagged to the respective shuttle. Visitors without a flier are divvied up to 2-to-1, with Westside taking the lion’s share because it rents more spaces.

“It’s awkward, but we’re making the best of it,” said Westside co-owner Dave Gallenson. He and Royal Dynasty counterpart Almaw Yohannes both report healthy, if crimped, revenues.

To park and ride, Westside charges $8 for a single and $4 per person for groups of two or more. Royal Dynasty charges $4 per person. Neither requires reservations.

Barbara Powell, a management program analyst with the VA, said the decision to contract with both companies rested largely on the belief that the 900-space parking lot off Constitution Avenue was big enough for both. “We knew about the problem with the Getty parking,” she said. “We felt this way we could help the community and make some revenue for ourselves.”

Small-business correspondent Stephen Gregory can be reached at (213) 237-7001.