Service

Parking Rate Studies and Demand Strategy

A landlord demanded a parking rate increase of 74 to 105 percent. JDE counted the garage instead of arguing about it: 66 percent occupancy, and a rooftop billboard advertising more than 300 empty spaces. Fair market documented at $125 to $145, on roughly $660K to $790K a year of exposure, for a healthcare tenant in a downtown Los Angeles office tower. Rates are a math problem. Most facilities price them as a habit.

74 to 105%
Increase the landlord demanded
66%
Counted garage occupancy
$125 to $145
Fair market documented
01

Who hires it, and when

Owners reprice after acquisitions, renovations, or when revenue sits flat while the neighborhood fills. Cities and agencies validate rate moves before and after they take effect: at a Pacific Northwest convention center, JDE verified the client's own $12 to $15 rate move against counted occupancy. Tenants and their counsel order rate defense when a landlord's demand needs testing against counted demand. Operators use JDE to engineer monthly programs, validations, and event pricing.

02

What JDE delivers

The public evidence for demand-based pricing is a decade old. SFMTA's SFpark evaluation (2014) found rates moved down as often as up: average meter rates fell about 4 percent, garage rates about 12 percent, and blocks met their occupancy target 31 percent more often. Priced to counted demand, revenue and availability improve together.

  • Field occupancy and duration counts across representative days, not extrapolations from a single visit.
  • Rate benchmarking against a documented comparable set.
  • An elasticity read: what the counted demand base proves pricing can carry.
  • Monthly versus transient mix engineering, including recapture of underpriced monthly inventory.
  • Validation policy design, so tenant programs stop functioning as unpriced giveaways.
  • Event and peak pricing playbooks.
  • Post-move verification: JDE re-checks its projections against actuals and reports the difference.
03

Proof: rate defense, retained twice

One demand
$660K to $790K
A year of exposure carried by the landlord's rate demand, against fair market documented at $125 to $145.
One comparable set
$198.20
Comparables documented when the dispute resurfaced in 2020, with the garage counted at 11 percent occupancy.

Questions asked before a rate move

What is demand-based parking pricing?

Setting rates to hit a target occupancy instead of a target headline number: prices rise where demand exceeds the target and fall where spaces sit empty. San Francisco's SFpark is the reference case; SFMTA's 2014 evaluation reported average meter rates down about 4 percent while occupancy targets were met 31 percent more often. The principle: rates follow counted demand.

What is shared parking?

Different uses peak at different hours: office by day, dining and residential by night. A shared parking analysis counts the true combined peak instead of stacking each use's maximum, which usually supports fewer stalls than code defaults. With aboveground structured parking averaging about $52,000 per space in early 2026 (UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, February 2026), every stall not built is real money.

What does a parking rate study include?

Field occupancy and duration counts, a documented comparable set, stated elasticity assumptions, a recommended structure by product (transient, monthly, validation, event), and the projected revenue effect. Written to hand to a council, a lender, or opposing counsel without translation.

Test the rate before the market does

Send current rates, occupancy data if it exists, and the decision in front of you. JDE will return a study scope, or tell you the rate is already right. Contact JDE

Sources