There’s often a long wait between securing a site and breaking ground. Now, developers are making that downtime pay.
There is a big demand for vacant space, from carparks and empty lots, for storing vehicles and equipment, to offices, warehouses and everything in between.
These spaces can be rented out for a night, week or month, leaving the flexibility to start construction as soon as possible while making money and helping reduce the risk of the project.
This was the case for Zen Group as it waited to move ahead on a 16-storey, 176 apartment project at 24 Duncan Street, West End in Brisbane.
Get Parked founder Steve Gilbert said there were many people with various storage needs who were very happy with the option to use the warehouse on the 4190sq m site near the Brisbane River.
“We managed to activate that space into 20-30 or so different areas that were almost perpetually full and to sign on 15 quite diverse clients,” Gilbert said.
“Developers need the flexibility to be able to turn dirt straight away, so we give them very flexible options.
“It allows us to do month-to-month and still offer value to our tenants, whoever they might be, even though we don’t have a guarantee of a runway.”
Zen Group managing director Michael Emmanuel said it has been a simple and convenient process to utilise a site that would have otherwise been unused.
“While waiting for our development application, the Get Parked team diligently managed the property, looking after the maintenance, while generating good income,” Emmanuel said.
“Otherwise, I would have considered it too much of a headache for me to fill with my own workload.
“And all the while, the space was ready to empty as soon as we pulled the trigger.”
Get Parked general manager Trent Pridmore said they were reaching out to developers and asset owners to utilise their space.
“It started as one-off carparks then grew to surplus parking from other operators and merged into working with developers on sites,” Pridmore said.
“So the business has evolved into Spaces by Get Parked that looks at all the weird and wonderful ways we can use that space rather than just car parking.”
Get Parked was founded in 2013 and has now activated in excess of sites across south-east Queensland for storage, parking, office space and venue hire.
“Traditionally, these assets were left sitting empty—that was the way developers kept their options open,” Pridmore said.
“An empty site costs a huge amount of money [as] they’re still paying all their holding costs, land taxes, rates, finance, electricity and more.
“What they never really measured was their opportunity.”
That opportunity, depending on the size of the site, could be worth hundreds of thousands a year and reduce some of the hard costs.
Pridmore said there was actually a lot of space when one knew what to look for, and that right now demand is outstripping supply.
“There’s so much space that’s not being used,” Pridmore said.
“Our whole mission is connecting people to the spaces that they can’t find themselves.
“We do that in such a simple way that it makes it easy.”
Gilbert said they were active in finding space, filling it and solving problems along the way.
“Within our portfolio and inventory we often go directly to people who might suit what we have,” Gilbert said.
“They’re surprised at what they can do so close to the city.
“For the inner city we’ve got warehouse buildings, office buildings, vacant blocks. Further out, we’ve got industrial land that’s already hardstand, as well as stock that hasn’t been improved that we can also work with.”
Sometimes it can be as simple as just parking.
“There’s a block of land on the Gold Coast, for example, that used to have a commercial building on it,” Gilbert said.
“They just knocked it down and then sold it, and then we just put 15 car spots on it, right on the Gold Coast Highway.”
“It’s a very simple site. They even retained the trees and we worked around them. Anything’s possible.”
For those who need a space, Get Parked offers an easy, simple and cost effective way to find it.
For those that have a space, the business offers a smart, low-effort way to activate unused spaces, reduce holding stress, and generate a passive income.
Every day, hundreds of individuals and businesses connect with convenient, low-effort solutions, turning vacant or overlooked properties into vibrant, useful places.
The Urban Developer is proud to partner with Get Parked to deliver this article to you. In doing so, we can continue to publish our daily news, information, insights and opinion to you, our valued readers.
