Consolidating parking operations and technology under one vendor immediately increased building revenue for Maria Clark, Senior Property Manager with Unico Properties.

Traditionally, changing parking operators requires huge capital expenditures, lots of time, and unknowable operational headaches for property managers.

What if you could change parking operators easily and at no cost? And what if that switch could integrate operations and technology under one vendor - eliminating the need for costly hardware - while aligning incentives to optimize both parking revenue and driver experience?

Our client Maria Clark (Sr. Property Manager, Unico Properties) did just that. We visited Maria in Denver, and she walked us through what it was like to transition from her legacy parking operator to Metropolis. Here, she explains how Metropolis has made more money for her building and amenitized the parking experience for her tenants and visitors.

“I think it’s the future. Everyone wants parking to be easy and just something they don’t think about. And that’s really what it is.”

— Maria Clark, Senior Property Manager, Unico Properties

Metropolis: Maria! Thanks so much for doing this. To start, I thought we’d talk about how you got into property management. What drew you to this line of work?

Maria Clark: So I started out in hospitality. I worked in hotels and ski bum hotels, national parks around the United States, and I ended up in Denver because it's a great city and a great state. So I got here, was looking for a job, and got a temp job answering phones at Unico and just kind of never left, which worked out.

I think property management and hospitality are pretty similar, especially nowadays. I look at our tenants as really long-term guests. So that was about eight or nine years ago. I’m still here, still enjoying it.

M: What have been some things that've changed in terms of your tenants and their expectations?

MC: I feel like when I first started, tenants would call me if something bad was happening and I would call them if I needed them to pay their bills. Now, it's definitely more of a relationship and way more hospitality-centric. The question became “what can we do to make things better? What can we do to make you more comfortable?”

Tenants are asking themselves, “How do we keep our employees happy within our space”? So what are we doing at Unico - as a company, as a building - to keep them here and happy?

M: As you think about amenities and differentiating your building, what was your initial reaction to Metropolis? Do you think Metropolis has played a role in elevating the tenant experience?

MC: So actually, I was a non-believer at first. I was like, “what’s the point? We don't need to change what we're doing. The old parking works, let it go.”

And I think now that I've gone into it, it's definitely more of an amenity than I thought it would be, because now people don't necessarily think about parking. So it's an amenity to the building because it's just easy. But at the beginning I was like, “We don't need this.”

Now that we’re settled, I think it’s the future. Everyone wants it to be easy and just something they don't think about. And that's really what it is. And I think that it sets us apart from other parking garages in the area that don't have this technology, that don't have this ease of access, that can't offer quick, easy validations to their tenants.

“It really is such an easy process from bringing them on board to the day to day operations.”

M: How has the Metropolis experience been with your tenants?

MC: When we first did the changeover, the Metropolis team went with us and met with all of our tenants, answered all of the questions that they had about what their experience is going to be, what their guest’s experiences are going to be. They really took the time to actually sit down and make sure everybody understood how to sign up on their platform, and how simple it actually is.

So that was very helpful for me because I didn’t know the technology intimately. So I think it's really helpful that somebody from the Metropolis team actually spent the time talking to our tenants, making sure they were taken care of and understood what they were supposed to do and how it all worked.

M: Have there been any material changes for your building since you’ve brought Metropolis on?

MC: Since we brought Metropolis on, we saw a big increase in revenue. And I think over time, we're going to continue to see that because we're going to be able to work with Metropolis, and they're going to hone in on rates and identify different customers in the area. So for Unico, it was a huge benefit almost immediately.

M: What do you think has been the differentiator that enabled that revenue increase?

MC: I think the revenue increase really comes from the ease of access for people to be able to use the garage. Everyone's used to getting on their phone and using a QR code. And so I think because you can offer a very seamless transaction that people don't have to think about, it just makes it a no-brainer for people to choose that parking garage.

Comparing that to the standard experience of pulling a ticket, waiting for the gates open, validating or paying at the gate when you're leaving... I think it's just a much easier transaction for anybody to go through.

M: How does the Metropolis system compare to traditional revenue control systems?

MC: I will say that it's really nice not to have a gate arm broken every other day and having to get those replaced or a kiosk not working. The operating expenses are a lot less because you don't have this kind of antiquated equipment.

M: How has your day-to-day experience been with Metropolis?

MC: I talk to my Metropolis team almost daily, but it's about positive things. It's not about issues. It's about, "Hey, we've thought of this new way of communicating with your tenants", or "We're reaching out to other people in the area to get them excited to use your garage".

It's not really about "This isn't working" or "That's not working" or "This person's upset because they sat at the gate for 12 hours". So I talk to them all the time, but it's always positive. It's always just like, "Here's the new things that we're doing to make the garage more efficient", or "Here are the things that we're thinking about for the future".

M: How has Metropolis been in terms of being responsive to the needs of the building, and creating tools that provide value to you and your tenants?

MC: I think in all of the conversations that we've had on every level with Metropolis is that, you know, they're innovative, they're finding different opportunities within buildings to make our lives easier, to make it a lot more approachable for our tenants.

M: Last one. It’s a little cheesy, but if you had to choose one word to describe your experience with Metropolis, what would it be and why?

MC: Easy. One word I would describe working with Metropolis is easy because it really is such an easy process from bringing them on board to the day to day operations. It's just been a very easy process.