Buccini Pollin Group (BPG) is a nationwide real estate development firm co-headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and Chevy Chase, Maryland that owns over 7 million square feet of office and retail space, 17 major residential communities, and 40 hotels across the US. Many of BPG’s properties have a significant parking component, including 4 parking garages in the heart of downtown Delaware near their corporate headquarters. These garages serve a variety of driver types including office employees, transient parkers, and retail visitors. In selecting a parking management company, BPG was looking for a partner who could meet the firm’s high quality bar and focus on exceptional guest experience.
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Wilmington, DE, USA
4 surface lots and garages
The Challenge
The prior operator managed BPG’s portfolio of mixed-use, office-adjacent garages with paper spreadsheets and paper checks which made it cumbersome to keep track of the large rent roll of parkers - from tenants and their customers to employees. Some tenants had long overdue bills but were never reminded to pay. Other customers continued to be billed long after cancelling their parking. Drivers were even afraid to enroll in autopay since it was offered at an extra fee, leading to overdue payments.
The prior operator attempted to bring technology into the operation with LPR-enabled parking gates that opened after reading a valid license plate, but the system led to backups that would spill up to the third floor of the garages. The gates were a single point of failure. During peak hours, drivers were used to waiting 15-20 minutes just to exit the garage. Many of the tenant businesses reviews were impacted by the poor parking experience.
BPG needed a comprehensive parking management overhaul to improve driver experience and financial performance alike. And while they were excited to bring technology to the operation, they needed to right kind of technology - tech that fit into the operation well instead of creating more problems.
To address these challenges, BPG partnered with AirGarage to implement a modern gateless parking management system across their Wilmington properties. The transition involved removing the existing gate system and introducing a technology-driven approach to parking management based around license plate reading cameras and QR-code based payments.
To solve the first problem around inaccurate billing, AirGarage transitioned monthly parkers onto a digitized rent roll, enabled automatic payments, and implemented a campaign to follow up with delinquent parkers.
Like the previous operator, AirGarage installed license plate reading cameras across the facilities, but a key difference was the LPR was not a choke point that could lead to backups if one vehicle had an obstructed license plate. Instead, the system focused on collecting reliable ground truth data that enforcers could use to maximize compliance and understanding parking patterns and occupancy.
This enabled BPG to understand the occupancy and parker type at each garage, which allowed AirGarage to optimize pricing across the portfolio. AirGarage also provided a dashboard for BPG to monitor daily receipts and oversee pricing strategies in real-time.
In addition to implementing the new parking technology, the AirGarage team provided on-site support during implementation to ensure a smooth transition. AirGarage proactively maintains, cleans, and offers customer support at the properties, elevating the parking experience.
The implementation of AirGarage’s gateless parking system led to a significant revenue uplift and driver experience improvements. Specific results include:
Hear from Rob Buccini, President of the Buccini Pollin Group, directly about the challenges they faced with their prior operator and how partnering with AirGarage has solved their operational issues while increasing revenue and improving the driver experience.
Overall, the partnership with AirGarage has enabled Buccini Pollin Group to offer a better experience for everyone involved - ownership, employees, and retail tenants alike.
