North Highland Steel Parking Revenue Optimization With Parkify
North Highland Steel sits on one of the most valuable stretches of the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile corridor that draws millions of visitors each year. The mixed-use property, owned by Perennial Properties, has 13 retail tenants, on-street parking, and a 175-space parking deck.
Until 2024, every one of those parking spaces was free.
The property was absorbing foot traffic from the entire BeltLine corridor without capturing a dollar in parking revenue. Non-customers occupied retail spaces for hours, tenants had no way to validate legitimate shoppers, and property owners had zero visibility into how the parking asset was being used.
When Parkify took over parking management, North Highland Steel went from generating nothing to averaging over $40,000 per month in parking revenue. Here's how it happened.
Why Free Parking Was Costing the Property Money
Free parking sounds like a perk. In practice, it was creating problems that hurt both the bottom line and the parking experience for the people the property was actually built to serve.
Unmanaged Spaces Meant Zero Revenue
With 175 retail parking spaces and additional on-street parking, North Highland Steel had significant potential revenue sitting untapped. There was no parking operation in place, no access control, and no revenue management strategy. Every car that parked for free represented a missed opportunity.
Non-Customers Were Taking Over
The BeltLine attracts joggers, cyclists, dog walkers, and tourists year-round. Without enforcement or a structured parking management system, many of those visitors treated North Highland Steel's parking lot as their personal parking space. That meant retail customers regularly circled looking for open spaces while non-customers parked for hours without spending a dollar at the property's businesses.
This poor space utilization directly affected customer satisfaction for the tenants who depended on accessible, convenient parking.
Tenants Had No Visibility
Retail tenants had no way to track whether the cars in their parking facility belonged to actual customers or BeltLine visitors passing through. Without real-time data on who was parking and for how long, tenants couldn't validate true patrons or measure how parking availability affected their sales.
Previous Parking Operators Had Failed
Perennial Properties had avoided paid parking for a reason. Past experiences with traditional parking operators left a bad impression, and the available technology at the time couldn't handle the complexity of monthly parkers, tenant validations, and mixed-use access control. The property needed a smarter approach, not just a gate and a fee.
How Parkify Built a $40K/Month Parking Operation
Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all paid parking setup, Parkify designed a parking operation specifically around North Highland Steel's needs as a mixed-use BeltLine property. The goal was simple: capture revenue without driving away the retail customers and residents who make the property valuable in the first place.
Custom Validation Workflows for 13 Tenants and the Leasing Office
One of the biggest obstacles to paid parking at retail properties is the fear that charging for parking will send customers to competitors. Parkify solved this by building custom validation workflows for all 13 retail tenants and the on-site leasing office.
Each business and the leasing team received tools to validate parking directly, giving them control over how many validations they issued and to whom. This meant:
Retail tenants could confirm real customers and provide free or discounted parking
The leasing office could validate prospective residents touring the property, ensuring a frictionless first impression
Validation data gave tenants and the leasing team visibility into actual parking patterns
Abuse from non-customers dropped significantly once enforcement began
The validation system replaced guesswork with real data, and tenants gained confidence that paid parking was actually protecting their customer base rather than hurting it.
License Plate Recognition and QR Code Payments
Parkify deployed license plate recognition cameras to identify vehicles automatically at entry and exit. This removed the need for physical access cards, ticket dispensers, or parking attendants checking lists.
For visitors paying to park, the process is fast. Drivers scan a posted QR code, enter their license plate number, and pay from their phone in seconds. No mobile app download required. The system links payment to the vehicle automatically, so enforcement happens in real time without citations scattered across windshields.
This approach keeps the parking experience frictionless for customers while giving the parking operator full visibility into every transaction and every vehicle on the lot.
Smart Enforcement That Protects Residents and Retail
North Highland Steel's layout includes nested residential parking areas alongside the retail deck. Parkify established clear enforcement protocols to make sure residents parked in designated areas while prime retail spaces stayed available for customers during peak times.
This kind of structured access control is difficult to manage manually, but Parkify's AI-powered platform handles it automatically, tracking who's parking where, enforcing time limits, and flagging violations without requiring on-site staff.
Monetizing On-Street Parking
Beyond the 175-space retail deck, North Highland Steel also had on-street parking that wasn't generating any revenue. Parkify converted these on-street spaces into paid parking, improving traffic flow while creating an additional revenue stream the property had never tapped.
This is a step many parking managers overlook. On-street spaces along high-traffic corridors like the BeltLine represent real money when managed with the right technology and dynamic pricing strategy.
The Results: From $0 to $40,000+ Per Month
Within months of going live, North Highland Steel became a profitable parking asset. The numbers tell the story:
$40,000+ per month in average parking revenue from a lot that previously generated zero
175 managed spaces with improved availability and turnover for retail customers
13 tenant validation workflows providing real-time data on customer parking patterns
On-street parking revenue captured for the first time
Increased NOI for Perennial Properties with a sustainable, long-term parking revenue optimization strategy
These results came without alienating the retail tenants or BeltLine visitors that give the property its value. Customer satisfaction remained strong because the system was designed around convenience, not friction.
Why This Model Works for Mixed-Use Properties
North Highland Steel's situation isn't unusual. Property owners across the parking industry face the same challenge: they know their parking asset has value, but previous experiences with traditional operators, clunky technology, or rigid pricing models have kept them from acting on it.
Parkify takes a different approach from the traditional parking management company model. The platform provides the full technology stack at zero upfront cost, including license plate recognition cameras, QR code payment infrastructure, and the AI-powered dynamic pricing engine that adjusts rates based on real-time demand.
Property owners maintain control of their parking operation and their revenue. There's no need to hand the keys to a third-party operator who takes a cut of every dollar and prioritizes their own margins over yours.
Implementation typically takes under 30 days, and the property continues normal operations throughout the transition. For parking managers evaluating whether paid parking makes sense for their property, the North Highland Steel case shows what's possible when the right technology meets the right strategy.
Stop Leaving Revenue in Your Parking Lot
If your property has unmanaged or underperforming parking, you're leaving money on the table every day. North Highland Steel proved that even a property with no prior parking revenue can become a high-performing parking asset with the right tools.
Ready to find out what your parking operation could generate? Book a free strategy session with Parkify and see how parking revenue optimization can work for your property.