Lets talk about: PARKING
We all hate parking far from the entrance to the restaurant, store, gym or workplace. Sometimes lack of parking stops us from even visiting these establishments...ok not work but you know it’s still annoying. Here is a breakdown by sector on how parking effects your patronage.
Retail: While this might be intuitive for suburban retailers who often enjoy 5.0/1,000 sf leased parking ratios, there are certain operators, like gyms, who need customers to be able to park and be a 30 second walk to the front door. In my experience w/@lafitness the time it takes to get from car to club is a huge factor in whether or not people visit your location. Urban retailers don’t always have the luxury of on-site parking and should locate in either a “destination” zone (most frequently traveled blocks) or nearest to public parking as possible.
Hospitality: similar in discussion to retailers, however, suburban sites should have “express” or “to-go” stalls adjacent the ADA stalls at the facility. Covid makes taking over your parking lot a necessity right now, but your to-go delivery speed is a still a factor...besides, who wants to pay Grub Hub, Uber Eats or Postmates 30% of your sale?! Urban food & beverage operators primarily want to locate where the people are and where their concept isn’t over saturated. Let’s face it, city living forces you to walk and we will gladly do so to get to our favorite places.
Office: for office tenants, parking can be a financial component that effects their bottom line. Most suburban office parking comes free of charge, except for you Santa Monica. Urban office parking can run $100-$300/stall/month and subsidizing your employee parking charges will substantially increase your monthly overhead.
Whatever sector you fit into, parking is an aspect of the real estate selection you need to pay attention to in order to ensure overall success.
