Submitted by Alan E. Kraemer, Jun 1, 2007 09:25

The reserved and exotic rates seem about right for 2007, and not really exorbitant for the demand level, as those rate types existed when I operated a number of parking facilities in Manhattan from 1993-1997, ten years ago. The same rate bands for reserved and exotic spaces in high-demand Midtown were $485-$600 in the area I was responsible for, and I'm sure there were higher rates.

Pricing rate structures for parking is a function of supply and demand. The savvy parking operator does not benefit from gouging, but a fundamental rule of the industry is that when your facility is consistently full and you begin to develop a waiting list, it's time to adjust the parking rates if you can. As leases for parking facilities have gotten shorter in term since 9/11, a parking operator must make sure he's operating the garage as competitively as possible, for it is a risk that a competitive operator can offer the landlord (i.e., the owner of the garage who leases it to parking operators) a higher rent derived from a perceived opportunity to charge a higher parking rate structure.

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