Property owners & real estate developers: do you have student housing apartment complexes in your existing and future portfolio? If so, this case study on ParqEx, providing multi-building entry access control solutions, is perfect for you.
Greystar Worldwide, an international real estate manager & developer and ParqEx’s client, owns numerous properties worldwide. For example, Monarch 716 is a student housing apartment building just blocks away from Buffalo State University in Buffalo, New York, in which ParqEx has installed its property technology for student housing.
The Situation
Monarch 716 is a beautifully built two and four-bedroom apartment building complex offering a great living environment for students combined with several amenities, including a 24-hour fitness center, a pool, and even a bowling alley for the students to enjoy. Consisting of 9 different buildings, with students, friends, and even family members entering and exiting constantly, the problem at Monarch was one of access.
This problem was an issue for both the tenants & the property management team. The students found it inconvenient that they would have to go down to the lobby to allow their guests in. For the buildings with outdoor gates, tenants had to go outside to give access, which was particularly frigid during the bone-chilling winters in Buffalo.
For the property management team, the main issue was, as you can imagine, security. They had dealt with numerous cases of shared & lost fobs (which is highly costly) amongst students and never truly knew who was coming and going at what times. Therefore, the property managers needed a better way to keep track & needed to find ways to eliminate any possibility of sharing access codes with outsiders and fob sharing.
The Solution
For the accessibility issues at Monarch 716, ParqEx first sat down with the management team and listened to all the pain points reported by students and management security concerns. The ParqEx team knew that both access & security issues could be fixed by a new access plan using ParqEx’s Access + Touchless technology.
The solution for the Monarch buildings evolved from ParqEx’s Access + parking technology, which was designed for touchless entry & exit for authorized vehicles. ParqEx built the Access + Pedestrian Touchless Door Opener using the same technology for Monarch 716. This ParqEx, Access Control system offers highly secure, authorized-only access to locked interior & exterior pedestrian doors. So how do students gain entry? Through their smartphones! Clearly, for a university apartment complex, with nine different entry points, the Access + Pedestrian Touchless Door was the perfect solution for the property.
The Access + upgrade to Monarch’s property eliminated the need for fobs & entry codes & simplified the entire guest process. Through the Access + Touchless app on students’ phones, when their guests arrive, they can let them in remotely! Gone are the days of trekking downstairs and even outside to admit a guest. Taking it one step further, with ParqEx’s GuestAccess feature, a tenant can provide access permissions to their guest, who, once accepts the invitation, can now come and go whenever they please. Furthermore, this access can be granted with a start and end date and even time, giving ultimate control to the tenant!
The building management team now has new tech amenities to offer to their existing and future tenants, and more importantly, has master control of the entire access system providing them with full transparency of all activity on the property. Management can grant, revoke, and even override access with a simple click on the admin dashboard — this feature-rich dashboard grants management real-time insights on exactly who is coming and going from which building. Additionally, with records and reporting, the security issue that once hindered this property is now entirely resolved.
The Result
ParqEx’s Access + Pedestrian Touchless Door Opener & GuestAccess completely revolutionized the accessibility and security of the Monarch buildings. With ParqEx’s tech, all tenants and guests have a more straightforward and modern way to access the property. In addition, the management team now had a new feature-rich amenity to offer to their tenants and a fully secure system with in-depth reporting & real-time insights for all nine of their buildings.
The overall result: reduced security risks, reduced staff hours, considerable cost elimination regarding the purchase, repair, management, and tracking of all key cards, fobs, and transponders, and increased student satisfaction.
“It’s incredible what ParqEx’s Access + system has provided us. We’ve saved a bundle by eliminating key fobs and operational expenses, but the security and insight into entries is invaluable. Furthermore, overall tenant satisfaction with access is highly improved and, dare I say — fun to use!” Latifa Williams (Property Manager, Monarch 716)
Reach Out!
ParqEx is a property technology company that provides countless benefits to management and tenants alike! Much like Monarch 716, with ParqEx, student housing apartment complexes can solve access issues, increase security, resolve all guest access annoyances, and reduce the overall operating costs for the management team.
Download the Monarch 716 case study and contact us to learn more about our property technology for student housing!
