So, you have a parking garage and you’re looking for a way to maximize the use of the space in it. Parking garages, whether they’re free-standing or part of an apartment complex, is an investment, and almost anyone who’s made an investment has a vested interest in ensuring that they can make as much money as possible off of it. There are a lot of different ways that you can optimize the space and the money that you make from the space ranging from tenant storage to vending machines and so on.
It can take a bit of strategy to make sure that as much of the space in your parking garage is being as used as possible, but with a bit of creativity, you can make sure that your garage offers the best possible amenities a parking garage can offer. By the end of this article, you’re going to have a few phenomenal ideas of what to do with that unused space in your parking garage so you can turn empty parking spots into cold hard cash. No matter how much or little extra space you have available for this, there’s a good chance that something on our list will work for you.
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Install a Few Vending Machines
Let’s start off with a quick question, what’s an easier thing to maintain and keep running that has a good profit ratio than a vending machine? That question is rhetorical and we’re going to give you the answer right now. The only thing that is better for putting very little work into it and getting a good return than vending machines are laundry machines. Now, if you have an apartment complex there’s a good chance that you already have a laundry room and even if you don’t a parking garage isn’t a good place for a washer and dryer.
Vending machines are a great way to monetize some of that extra space in your parking garage. Most people when they get home are coming from work, school, or social activities. In most cases, when people get home they’re either hungry or thirsty and would be willing to pay a couple of bucks for a snack or drink. By having a vending machine or two in your parking garage you can take advantage of this need by giving people a convenient way to satisfy their needs with nothing more than the change they have in their pockets.
Most people will buy the snacks and drinks in bulk from big warehouse stores like Sam’s Club or Costco and then markup the prices so that it can be profitable. You can even have the items be cheaper than would be expected to find in a convenience store and still make a reasonable profit on them. All you need to do to keep it up and running is to restock the machine when it starts getting empty and take the money from the machine. Many people use money counting machines to make that part even easier.
If you’re an especially busy person you can contract the service and maintenance of the vending machine to someone else. The other company will be getting most of the profits from the vending machine, but you can usually negotiate how much money you’ll get from it. It’s pretty common to find people that are willing to give 25% to 30% of the profits from the vending machine, which means that you’d be making a little extra money just to let someone set up shop in your parking garage. That’s a pretty sweet deal for everyone involved.
Add Some Storage Lockers
One great thing that can easily be put into a parking garage with unused space is tenant lockers. Having some sort of storage that you can offer your tenants means that they can have somewhere to put their extra stuff while you charge a monthly fee for the privilege. That’s a win-win for both you and your tenants and allows you to improve your overall return on investment for the entire property. It might take a few months, but most landowners report that they see their storage lockers pay for themselves over time.
It’s hard to go wrong with storage lockers in general, but keeping them in your parking garage makes things even better. Let’s say a tenant got home from an event or the store or some other place where they made some purchases. Their car is full of stuff that they don’t want to keep in their car but they also don’t have space for in the apartment yet. Well, with the storage lockers in the garage they can easily just place their items in their locker and go back up to their apartment so they can make room for the new items.
Maybe someone wants to make sure that they don’t forget to take something with them when they leave the house. They can put their item in their storage locker and just grab it on the way out. That ensures that they don’t forget the things that they need to bring with them and makes picking up the items a lot easier because they have to go to the garage to get their car anyway. Convenience and storage all in one place, that’s what the vast majority of people want most in their storage lockers.
On top of convenience, in most cases, you can find storage lockers that are highly secure and built to be sturdy. Most companies that create these storage lockers understand the way that criminals think and use that to their advantage. That can manifest in a lot of different ways. One company uses mesh ceilings that are impossible to cut with bolt cutters. Some companies go so far as to use locks that have shackle guards on them to prevent the use of bolt cutters. Depending on who you go with, you might even get the closest thing to an unpickable lock as possible for these storage units.
Of course, you’ll probably still have people that prefer to go to off-site storage providers for various reasons. Maybe they don’t like your pricing, maybe they want to make sure that their things are extra secure, or maybe they just have more things than your storage lockers could fit. That’s ok because even if a quarter of the storage units are used consistently you’re still getting more use out of that part of your parking garage than you would have otherwise, and that’s all that we were going for in the first place.
Partner with Companies to Provide Truly Modern Amenities
If nothing else on this list sounds like something you’d want to do, you do still have a plethora of other options. In fact, many companies make things like this exceedingly easy if you choose to partner with them. For example, you could take the vending machine to the next level by having vending machines that sell things like hand soap, basic foodstuffs, or even electronics if your parking garage is secure enough to facilitate that kind of thing. You could even throw in a claw machine or arcade game if that’s the vibe you want to go for.
One of the quickest rising amenities is the Amazon Hub Locker. These lockers are designed to be the delivery address of Amazon packages, meaning that your tenants can send their packages to the locker rather than sit unsecured on their front door. When their package arrives they’ll get a notification on their Amazon account that will give them a code to enter into the touchscreen on the locker. Once they enter the code, the machine will automatically open their locker and they’ll be able to take their package and go back to their apartment.
If you’re feeling really determined to provide a truly modern environment to your tenants you could try to partner with one of the companies that have electric bikes and scooters in town so you can offer them to your tenants right from the garage. We aren’t sure about the logistics of this because most of the time anyone can use the scooters or bikes so you might need to have your garage open for this, but surely some company would be willing to work with you to make this a reality. Just make sure to thoroughly read any contracts that you’re given so you don’t end up getting a raw deal.
Distinctively Enhance Tenant-Focused Ideas With Your Unused Space
Making sure that every inch of your parking garage is being used to its full potential can be hard, especially if your tenants aren’t filling up all of the spots. Fortunately, by planning out good ways to utilize the space you could potentially see some financial reward in return. Whether you want to provide something tried and true or you’re feeling a little more courageous and want to try to walk the road less traveled, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to turn empty parking spaces into easy cash.
