Uber Seattle celebrated the opening of its new Greenlight Hub in Tukwila with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 11.

The 3,400-square-foot facility, at 6450 Southcenter Blvd., Suite 102, provides Uber driver-partners with in-person support and assistance. The hub is expected to serve more than 1,000 driver-partners each week, including many who live nearby. Uber previously operated a regional hub in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood.

“We definitely heard from a lot of divers that parking was a huge issue there (in Pioneer Square),” Brooke Steger, Pacific Northwest Uber general manager, said during the ribbon cutting ceremony. “When there were (Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders) games it was very expensive or near impossible to park. We know a lot of you are either taking trips to or picking up from the airport, so we started looking around trying to find something that had more parking, was easily accessible for drivers and then we found this spot.”

The new site has ample parking, a one-stop-shop mechanic and inspection location and space for informational sessions.

“Before there was no ability to get a vehicle inspection (at the hub),” Steger said. “If your vehicle inspection was about to expire or you needed to renew it, you weren’t able to do that at the hub. You had to go out to one of the spots. So now, it is really exciting that you can do all of that here.”

Uber partners with seven car mechanic shops around the Seattle metro area to provide Greenlight Spots, where an Uber Expert can help drivers with inspections or re-inspections.

The Greenlight Hub is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Eight to 10 Uber experts will be available to help with new driver-partner signups and answer questions about the app.

The new hub allows Uber to further its mission of providing reliable transportation while reducing congestion and pollution, Steger said.

“Our goal here is to reduce personal vehicle usage and get people out of their personal cars and have them take public transit, have them take Uber, have them use car-share services,” Steger said “We want to see people leaving those personal vehicles at home, especially leaving those personal vehicles at home when they have been drinking.”

For more information about Uber, visit uber.com/cities/seattle.

Uber expert Oscar Romero, right, helps Gary Tarver, of Tacoma, sign up to become an Uber driver-partner at the new Greenlight Hub in Tukwila. The hub, which moved from Pioneer Square in Seattle, provides Uber driver-partners with in-person support and assistance. HEIDI SANDERS/Tukwila Reporter