The Parking Problem in Commercial Property

Mixed use commercial and retail sites often face challenges around parking allocation. These relate to equitably allocating a limited number of parking spaces to different users of the building. Given the evolving landscape of workplaces in recent years, commercial spaces have morphed from dedicated office areas to versatile, multi-functional precincts catering to a range of users. These spaces transition from office or commercial settings during the day to hospitality and entertainment hubs at night, showcasing adaptability. And in turn this has driven the need for flexible arrangements around parking usage.

This transformation necessitates owners, landlords, tenants, and site visitors to navigate the complexities of sharing parking spaces among different user groups and timeframes. Flexibility in parking arrangements becomes crucial to accommodate the varying demands of commercial tenants during the day and retail/hospitality customers outside of business hours.

Parking allocation challenges can lead to frustration, inconvenience, and increased costs for owners, tenants, and facilities managers. Tenants may struggle to find suitable parking near their units, while facilities managers encounter obstacles in efficiently and fairly managing parking resources, impacting the owners’ return on investment.

At ThatsMySpot, we recognise the significance of establishing a seamless parking experience in mixed-use environments for all stakeholders. Our innovative solutions assist tenants and owners in optimizing parking allocation, enhancing enforcement procedures, and boosting overall parking management efficiency.

Through our expertise and technology, tenants and owners can address parking allocation hurdles in mixed-use commercial and retail spaces, fostering a harmonious parking environment that caters to everyone’s needs and elevates the overall experience.

The Parking Solution

Case Study: Goodman Property – Rosebery Engine Yards, Sydney

Goodman Property faced a unique challenge at The Rosebery Engine Yards, their new mixed-use commercial site. By day, the precinct houses a flexible mix of office and co-working spaces, designed to embrace the flexible and changing nature of the workplace. After business hours the precinct transforms into a hub of dining and hospitality venues. This dual-purpose required a flexible parking solution to cater to the diverse needs of occupants and visitors.

To address this, we worked with Goodman to deliver a flexible parking system which seamlessly transitions parking arrangements between office hours and retail hours. During business hours, parking bays are reserved for office occupants, ensuring convenient access to their designated parking spaces. After hours, these designated bays open up for patrons visiting the retail and hospitality parts of the development.

The site features a total of 70 parking bays, 40 indoor and 30 outdoor parking bays. Our smart bollard technology allows automation of parking space control and allocation, and this facilitates easy adjustment of parking zones for different users. 

Our system allows individual office resident users to open their own unique parking bay for their secure entry and exit. And we also implemented smart programming to enable the facilities manager to operate bulk batches of multiple parking bollards to automatically secure tenant spaces or open simultaneously to allow for retail patrons to access them.

Our smart parking bollard solution delivers a result for Goodman which streamlines the transition between diverse use cases across different time periods. And so providing enhanced user experience for both facility managers and parkers.

By incorporating ThatsMyspot’s tailored parking solution, Goodman achieved:

• Operational Efficiency: Quick and easy switching of use allocations by the facilities manager based on time zones.
• User Satisfaction: Commercial tenants and visitors now have assurance regarding parking bay availability during their designated time slots.
• Convenience: Automated bollards provided swift and simple access for commercial tenants throughout the business day.

Case Study 2: Parking at Meriton – Pagewood Green, Sydney

We recently installed these manual and automated parking-bollards in a commercial mixed use application. The site included a retail shopping precinct and residential strata apartments. But retail tenants had designated parking bays for each of their tenancies included in their leases. And they paid a premium for these bays. The problem was, shoppers would see them available and unprotected, and park in them. Read more below how by installing parking bollards in commercial mixed use sites helps tenants run their businesses more efficiently.

The Parking Problem

A Sydney cafe owner rented six parking spaces with their commercial retail tenancy in a retail shopping centre. However, shoppers frequently occupied these spaces, despite signage indicating they were for ‘RETAIL’ use. This presented a challenge as the cafe owner needed these spots for their staff and delivery vans. And they paid a premium for accessible parking on their lease.

The shop owner needed to protect their parking (especially considering how much they pay for this on their lease). They needed their parking bays to be available for their delivery vans and staff to use with speed and ease.

The Parking Bollard Solution

The cafe owner approached us to address this issue, and we swiftly resolved it by installing our reliable bollards.

For parking bays used by employees during longer shifts, we installed manual car park bollards. For those designated for delivery vans needing quick access, we opted for manual car park bollards.

We installed the parking bollard installations for the customer in the morning. And by lunchtime the owner was just ecstatic and couldn’t thank us enough. Relieved from her parking woes, the cafe owner was able to focus on her business.

By deploying parking bollards in commercial mixed-use sites like this retail shopping center, we effectively resolved a major issue. And we ensured that the retail tenant always had their dedicated parking bays at their disposal.

Couldn’t be happier with stories like these!