Improved Revenue and Experience at AVA Little Tokyo
Zach Rudick, Asset Manager at AvalonBay Communities discusses how Metropolis has streamlined the building's parking operations and improved the user experience for residents and retail customers.
AvalonBay is a pioneer in developing assets where people want to work, live, and play. In that spirit, AvalonBay brought in Metropolis to deliver a comprehensive, data-centric approach at AVA Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles to not only optimize revenue but also significantly improve the driver experience for the building's residents and retail customers.
In this interview Zach shares how Metropolis' cutting-edge technology and integrated approach has given AvalonBay the ability to maximize financial performance while allowing their local things to focus on what they do best: supporting their tenants.
“As an Asset Manager, I feel confident that the Metropolis system is allowing this community to be the best version of itself.”
— Zach Rudick, AvalonBay Communities
Metropolis: Hi Zach! Let’s talk about AVA Little Tokyo. Could you tell us a little bit about the building and what the parking operation was like before Metropolis?
Zach Rudick: We completed construction at AVA Little Tokyo in 2015 and have about seven or eight retail tenants, around 280 apartment units, and about 500 parking spaces. About 80 of the spaces are reserved for the employees and customers of our retail spaces there.
At the time, we used a lot of legacy parking equipment that was very popular. We had a gate arm with a ticket system and ticket-based validation for our retail customers. Over time, that introduced a lot of opportunities for malfunction with the physical tickets themselves, with the validation machines, customers losing tickets, or forgetting to validate. And then we have all the issues that normally accompany a ticketed and gated entry exit system, like gate malfunctions and ticket jamming.
There were a lot of times during a particular month where we would have disruptions and we would have to leave the gate open. When that happened, we lost our ability to have controlled access, and monetize our retail parking.
M: How did those operational headaches affect AvalonBay’s local team?
ZR: Our onsite team’s core responsibility is to make sure that they attend to customer service issues with our residents, keep our leasing center open, and respond to future resident inquiries. So, incidents at the retail parking garage can be disruptive to their day whenever they must attend to a ticket jam or validation issue – it’s time that they can’t spend doing what they do best.
AVA Little Tokyo is in downtown L.A. so we have a busy leasing office. It's important for our leasing associates to be able to have the time and energy to focus on their core duties.
M: Metropolis data analytics can often help make operations smoother. Could you tell us how analytics have helped your operation?
ZR: What's great about viewing the data from Metropolis is how comprehensive it is. We've been able to see - in any given time period - detailed insights into the activity of the garage. Who's coming in? Who's coming out? How long are they staying? Is it validated parking? Is it paid parking? That allows us to make sure that we're structuring our rates in a way that makes the garage available at the times when we need it to be for our retailers.
This information really allows us to optimize our parking rates and identify potential problem areas. When we find a problem area, Metropolis enforcement can issue quick corrective action and make sure that the limited amount of retail parking is being made available for who it should be.
M: How did the rollout process go?
ZR: The rollout process at AVA Little Tokyo was extremely efficient and smooth. One thing that was great about it, from my perspective as an Asset Manager, is that Metropolis not only builds the technology - Metropolis also oversees the installation. And then it's Metropolis that provides the onsite parking management and our account management. That made it easy for me to have one onboarding manager who I could come to as a single point of contact for any questions or issues related to any of those parts of the transition process.
We really like the fact that Metropolis is integrated: I think that contributed to a much more seamless transition process. With other operations, sometimes you have the parking manager, the enforcement company, the equipment manufacturer, the installation team - that can be like four different groups of people. And they might not all be talking to each other. With Metropolis, you have those groups under one umbrella.
M: Now that Metropolis is rolled out and folks are used to this seamless parking experience, how has that supported the community?
ZR: I think one of the great aspects of the Metropolis user experience is that after the first time, you know exactly what to expect out of your parking experience. You know that you can just drive in and drive out when you're in the system, and that really supports a recurring customer experience for the retailers at AVA Little Tokyo. You know you don't have to download an app or enter your information again, pull another ticket, or make sure that you have your credit card or payment with you. It creates a very seamless and stress-free experience.
M: Have you noticed any meaningful revenue changes?
ZR: One thing we've noticed after implementing Metropolis is the amount of time that we can fully monetize the parking garage. We've reduced the amount of system downtime where gates must be raised and it was impossible to collect revenue.
I think what our experience has taught us in Asset Management at AvalonBay is that when we approach one of our teams at a specific community, we don't have ask them to be deeply involved in the parking operation to maximize financial performance.
We can show through our experience at Little Tokyo that Metropolis can give them more time to focus on their core responsibilities, and less time worrying about responding to specific issues at the parking operation, and all the while improving the financial performance of the location. I think that's been compelling and powerful.
M: As an Asset Manager, how do you look at the value Metropolis provides AvalonBay?
ZR: So as an Asset Manager overseeing multiple locations, all of which have hundreds or thousands of vehicles entering and exiting a parking facility every day, you can't address every issue. If you tried to solve every individual problem, it would be overwhelming and almost insurmountable. But with the data and analysis we get from Metropolis, it’s been easier for us to understand patterns of behavior, patterns of abuse and make corrective actions that can seriously have a material impact, not only in in the experience of our customers, but also financially for the operations of the garage.
There's a need to be very flexible and nimble in responding to changing business conditions and customer needs. Every square foot matters. Every parking space matters. I think Metropolis has been a great partner in that regard: they fulfill the core duties of a traditional parking operator, but also are very innovative and bring kind of outside of the box solutions that you wouldn't normally see from some other operators in the parking industry. That sort of leverage makes me feel confident that, with the Metropolis parking solution, we are allowing this community to be the best version of itself.
M: Thanks so much for your time, Zach!
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