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For the majority of drivers, parking frustration starts before they arrive at their destination.
Between waiting in long lines and searching for a lost parking ticket, the parking experience is “stressful” for an estimated 73.5% of people. More than half find it so stressful that they’re willing to avoid or cancel plans altogether to steer clear of undesirable parking conditions.
But the consequences of a bad parking experience extend far beyond the stress and frustration of drivers. For commercial property owners, it can mean lost revenue and negative first impressions before people even walk on-site.
One company, however, is taking a tech-forward approach to ease pain points for drivers and boost net operating income for property owners. That company is Metropolis, the nation’s largest parking operator, with more than 4,600 parking locations across North America.
“Parking is the front-door experience for an owner’s asset,” said Eric Roseman, senior vice president of sales and partnerships at Metropolis. “It's the first thing someone experiences, and it's the last thing they touch when they leave. That experience needs to be frictionless and add value to the building experience.”
But how does Metropolis actually work, and how is it different from the traditionally tedious parking models of the past?
Metropolis uses cameras equipped with computer-vision technology to identify a vehicle as it enters a given location. Once parked, new customers become Metropolis members by completing a free, one-time digital sign-up. They link their phone number, license plate and payment method, so when they exit, their visit ends, and Metropolis charges them automatically.
On future visits to Metropolis locations, the system already recognizes the member’s car and charges the saved payment method on file upon departure. It is a completely frictionless process, Roseman said.
“The member experience feels like magic in that you don’t have to interact with the typical entrance and exit at a garage, which is where the biggest hiccups of the experience usually are,” Roseman said. “It’s just really smooth, which is something you don't get elsewhere.”
Metropolis has more than 30 million members, adding about 1 million new members each month. In Texas, for example, Metropolis has more than 5 million members, making it one of the company’s largest markets.
These numbers are indicative of a larger theme: People want predictability in their journey. When presented with multiple options, they will go with where they know they can have a smooth experience, Roseman said.
“We're hitting the point of consumer preference in markets like Austin, Houston and Dallas, where we have Metropolis locations next door to non-Metropolis locations,” he said. “We've interviewed drivers, and they’ll select our garage because they know it’s going to be easy. We expect that to happen more across the country, and we already see it in certain key markets.”
With members preferring Metropolis parking locations, the company’s business model contributes revenue gains for commercial property owners.
Roseman said Metropolis’ platform requires zero upfront capital expenditure, with customized technology delivered to the site and fully operational in 30 days. This kind of setup can not only reduce operating costs associated with equipment but also with staffing and on-site teams.
On the technical side, Roseman said Metropolis’ computer vision can significantly reduce cash leakage from outdated systems that allow drivers to leave without paying, share parking passes or break hardware such as parking gates or barriers.
Roseman noted that, on average, Metropolis locations improve net operating income for owners by 14%. As a result, owners are starting to treat parking as a meaningful source of revenue, not a passive amenity, he said.
“We're eliminating a lot of these unnecessary or clunky tools from the past to create a more simplified revenue stream for owners,” he said.
As the largest parking operator in the U.S., Metropolis reaches nearly every major metropolitan area. It also touches nearly every sector of real estate, from healthcare and retail to multifamily and office.
“Healthcare really puts into perspective what we do best,” Roseman said. “For example, at Medical City Dallas Hospital, you have a lot of elderly folks or individuals who may be sick. Our technology allows people to avoid having to stop and take out cash or credit in an already complex environment. It’s much easier for everyone involved.”
Broadway Plaza, an open-air, high-end shopping center in Walnut Creek, California, perfectly illustrates a busy commercial environment that struggled with parking, Roseman said.
Before Metropolis operated its parking facilities, Broadway Plaza had bad experiences with broken equipment and backups. But when Metropolis took over operations, the parking experience changed dramatically for its thousands of visitors, many of them repeat customers, Roseman said.
In Nashville, Metropolis operates the parking at Nashville Yards, an office and mixed-use campus in the heart of Music City. What was unique about this development, Roseman said, is that even though it’s in the middle of the city, ownership decided to go “gateless” for its parking accommodations.
“You can just drive in and drive out without gates, and our computer vision does the work,” he said. “That indicates that the smaller cities of the future should be finding ways to use physical AI to improve the overall parking experience.”
As for the future of Metropolis and its AI-enabled computer vision, Roseman said it’s not stopping at parking. With this technology, it can eliminate friction points elsewhere on the member journey — whether that’s at drive-thrus or even gas stations.
Beyond the vehicle, Metropolis can help people move easily throughout an environment and cut out choke points around access or payment in various real estate asset classes, such as entertainment venues, he said.
“Imagine where there are physical bottlenecks, and Metropolis is going to find ways to use AI to make that physical layer frictionless,” Roseman said.
This article was produced in collaboration between Metropolis and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.
Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.
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