Challenge: At LaSalle Plaza in Minneapolis, Zeller, one of the most prestigious vertically integrated commercial real estate investment and development firms in the Midwest, had the goal of fully utilizing LaSalle Plaza’s parking garage to drive increases in NOI and asset value. To promote increased garage utilization, Zeller needed to fully understand the groups of parkers that were using the garage, how long they were staying, and where there were opportunities to increase revenue. Zeller aimed to manage inflows of both contract and transient parkers, and to put out the full sign at the latest possible time, ensuring that there would be available spaces for tenants while also maximizing transient revenue.
Solution: To carry out their business objectives and manage LaSalle Plaza, Zeller hired Denison Parking, an Indianapolis based parking operator with an accomplished track-record of improving asset performance dating to the late 1920s. Denison is one of the nation's most experienced parking operators. Denison’s multi-generational perspective in the parking industry allows them to understand the value that technology brings to their clients. This data-driven and technology-first approach to parking management led Denison to Smarking, which they brought to LaSalle Plaza in order to help them meet Zeller’s objectives. Smarking enables Denison to:
Monitor real-time occupancy with precision, without manually counting cars. Denison and Zeller can access the Smarking dashboard anywhere to see the current occupancy of LaSalle Plaza at any time. They can confidently decide when to put out the full sign, thereby managing capacity and maximizing transient revenue.
“Denison and Smarking helped us understand what parking KPI’s are important, where there are levers to pull, and how to make decisions around our assets.”
Bob Six, CEO and BOMA Fellow
Smarking’s Realtime Occupancy allows LaSalle Plaza to track occupancy and make informed decisions.
Conduct in-depth analysis with the historical trends of when parkers enter, exit, and understand what the average occupancy rate is for any given time through several quick clicks without having to crunch numbers on spreadsheets for hours. This understanding of historical trends helps Denison and Zeller to forecast more accurately.
“Denison believes the intentional application of technology can enhance value for parking assets, both through revenue enhancement and operating cost reduction. We choose to leverage advances in technology, and partner with software providers like Smarking, for the benefit of our clients.”
Perry Griffith III, President of Denison Parking
Average Year-to-Date occupancy during weekday peaks at 12PM.
“We now have the ability to track Tenant Level parking utilization behavior and ensure the best experience for our tenants."
Steve Herron, President, Zeller Management Corporation
ROI: Because Denison and Zeller can track real time occupancy through Smarking, they’re able to wait, on average, 30 minutes longer before displaying the full sign than they previously would. Their increased visibility into real-time occupancy helps raise tenant satisfaction because a greater number of parkers are able to access the garage; fewer are turned away for being at capacity.
“Real-time occupancy allows for a more seamless parking experience for our tenants.”
Xue Yang, Senior Property Manager
Year-over-year transient revenue is up 70% at LaSalle Plaza.
Zeller and Denison’s ability to maximize garage utilization through the insights it gathers from Smarking has contributed significantly to the large year-over-year increase in transient revenue, thereby increasing NOI and uplifting LaSalle Plaza’s value.
To uncover opportunities for your company, chat with our team. We offer free one-on-one consultations, just grab a time on our calendar if you’re interested. By providing market-leading Business Intelligence and Yield Management solutions to the commercial real estate and parking industry, Smarking has been enabling revenue increases at 2,500+ parking locations across North America.
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About Smarking
Smarking is a San Francisco based tech company serving commercial real estate owners, municipal governments, parking operators, and others to maximize business results for parking assets. Empowered by a team of MIT data scientists, urban mobility experts, Silicon Valley software engineers, and business professionals, Smarking’s market leading business intelligence and yield management software solution suite currently helps over 2,500+ parking locations in the USA and Canada maximize NOI optimization, tenant satisfaction, cost reduction, and enables data-driven parking policies.