At least to those who attended the Building Owners and Managers association annual convention in Long Beach, CA. Barbara Chance of Chance Management Advisors and Clyde Wilson of the Parking Network presented a fantastic seminar concerning how building managers should look at the parking operation as a tenant, and not as an amenity. They went into great detail as to how much revenue is generated as compared to lease space, and how often building managers , through their desire to keep costs down, browbeat operators into attempting to run the garages on much less than is required to do so. The presentation was backed up by their cumulative five decades in parking and statistics from audits the two firms had performed in building exactly like those run by the folks attending BOMA.
Twenty (20) people showed up.
The attendance proved their point. Parking to a building manager is an afterthought. It's not worth the attention of tenant or asset managers, even though it is in most large complexes, a business that generated millions per annum.
I will note, however, that I spoke to some of those who did come, and they were impressed. One group, from Ottawa, noted that this presentation was worth the entire amount of time and money they spent coming to the convention. And, they were right.
The IPI, which had a booth at the show and also promoted Barbara and Clyde, has a new program (of which this presentation was a part) called "Parking Matters." More power to them. It's a turned out program and professionally done. The more we can pitch our story, the better.
My problem is not with "Parking Matters" but with a industry as a whole. We are going to have to change how we approach our business. We need to attract quality people and require that they do a quality job. Not an easy task, and one that requires more than good PR.
JVH
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