Presidio Apartments, a 432-unit property near the Fremont BART station, suffered severe parking abuse from commuters who avoided daily transit parking fees. Property management eliminated unauthorized parking and generated over $4,000 per month in new rentable parking income within 90 days by implementing Reliant Parking, which required zero prior permit infrastructure.
Presidio Apartments, managed by Sares Regis Group, is located near a major BART station, making it a popular destination for transit commuters looking to avoid the station’s paid parking fees. The property had no way to distinguish between vehicles belonging to residents and those belonging to BART users who had no connection to the community before implementing any permit system.
Presidio had no permit program before January 2018. Parking operated on a first-come, first-served basis. BART commuters arrived early and took spaces that residents needed when they returned home. The property manager reported that rentable parking income had increased by over $4,000 per month within 90 days of implementing Reliant Parking.
This case study explores the BART-driven parking abuse issue and the implementation of the Reliant Parking management system, which required no prior permit infrastructure. It also shows the property’s remarkable transformation from generating no parking revenue to over $4,000 per month within just three months.
Quick Snapshot: Presidio Apartments at a Glance
| Property name | Presidio Apartments |
| Location | Fremont, California |
| Management company | Sares Regis Group |
| Community size | 432 units |
| Parking spaces | 864 spaces (2.0 spaces per unit) |
| External parking threat | Adjacent BART transit station with paid parking |
| Reliant Parking launch | January 2018 |
| Permit infrastructure before | None (zero permit program, zero vehicle tracking, no enforcement) |
| Financial result | Over $4,000 per month in rentable parking income added within 90 days |
| Annualised revenue impact | Over $48,000 per year in new recurring parking revenue |
| Other outcomes | BART commuter abuse eliminated, residents reliably find parking, and enforcement teams have real-time database access |
| Client quote | “My rentable income increased over $4,000 per month in just 90 days.” Presidio Apartments, Sares Regis Group |
Why Apartments Near Transit Hubs Are Uniquely Vulnerable to Parking Abuse
A residential apartment community located next to a transit station with paid parking faces a parking abuse dynamic that properties in purely residential areas do not face. The economics are simple, for instance, if the BART station charges $3 to $6 per day for parking, and the apartment lot next door is free and unmonitored, every BART commuter in a half-mile radius has a financial incentive to park at the apartment instead.
The Fremont BART station is one of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s high-ridership stations on the Warm Springs/South Fremont line (which serves Union City). Daily parking fees in 2018 at most BART stations in the Bay Area were $3 per day (with some exceptions like West Oakland at higher rates). This fee equals about $60 per month for a typical weekday commuter (assuming 20 days per month). An unmonitored free apartment lot a few blocks away represented a savings of about $60 per month for each BART commuter who used it instead of paying for official BART parking.
Residents returning home in the evening find no spaces available when BART commuters park early in the morning, and the lot is full by the time residents leave for work. The abuse directly prevents residents from accessing a service they pay for through their rent.
What did parking operations look like at Presidio Apartments before January 2018?
There was no parking permit system in place at all when Reliant Parking launched at Presidio Apartments in January 2018. The property had no resident permits, no guest passes, no vehicle registration, and no enforcement database. The 864-space lot operated entirely on a first-come, first-served basis with no record of who was authorized to park there.
Consequence 1: BART commuters filled spaces before residents could use them. Commuters arrived in the early morning when the lot had plenty of available spaces. Residents who left for work later or who worked unconventional hours returned to find their lot full of vehicles belonging to people who had no lease, no permit, and no relationship to the community.
Consequence 2: Enforcement was structurally impossible. Management teams cannot tow or cite unauthorized vehicles without a database to check against. A towing company cannot remove a vehicle from private property without a record proving the vehicle is unauthorized. Every vehicle in the lot looked the same without a permit system.
Consequence 3: The revenue opportunity remained completely uncaptured. Presidio had 432 spaces available beyond the basic allocation for its 432 units, totaling 864 spaces. Those spaces represented potential monthly rentable income. None of that income existed without a permit system.
Why Presidio Apartments and Sares Regis Chose Reliant Parking
The decision trigger: The management team at Presidio reached a point where the BART commuter abuse became operationally untenable. Residents complained regularly, and enforcement had no tools. The property carried 864 spaces without collecting a single dollar from them.
Why Reliant: Sares Regis Group is a California-based real estate developer and property manager with a portfolio of multifamily and commercial properties primarily in the Western United States. Their selection of Reliant Parking for a property of Presidio’s scale shows a considered institutional decision. They needed a platform that could create a comprehensive revenue and enforcement system with no pre-existing infrastructure.
Seven years of continuous use: Presidio launched on Reliant Parking in January 2018. The property has been on the platform for more than seven years as of 2025, making it the longest confirmed tenure in the Reliant case study portfolio. It also proves that the software delivers sustained operational value well beyond the initial implementation phase.
How Reliant Parking Was Deployed at Presidio Apartments
Step 1. Building the permit database from scratch: Starting a permit system from zero requires a different operational approach than transitioning from an old system. There are no existing permits to cancel and no old database to migrate. The resident population must be fully onboarded as new participants in a system they have never used. The Reliant Parking team configured the Manager Portal for 864 spaces, and the property management team collected vehicle information from all 432 units.
Step 2. Defining the parking inventory: The system categorized the 864 spaces into resident-assigned spaces, guest spaces, and rentable spaces to determine both the enforcement rules and the revenue potential.
Step 3. Setting the rentable parking fee: Management established a monthly fee for rentable spaces, charged every month through parking addenda.
Step 4. Resident notification and the BART commuter cutoff: Residents received notifications of the new permit system. This system provided a notice period before enforcement began, giving BART commuters a window to stop using the lot before towing was authorized.
Step 5. Enforcement app activation: Enforcement officers began using the Reliant Parking Enforcement App. Officers could check any plate in the lot against the resident database and confidently identify an unauthorized vehicle in seconds.
What Changed at Presidio Apartments After Going Live
Result 1. The property manager reported that rentable parking income increased by over $4,000 per month within 90 days of Reliant Parking going live at Presidio Apartments in January 2018. This revenue did not previously exist. Management generated this revenue entirely by converting previously unmonitored free parking spaces into a managed, fee-based, rentable inventory. This $4,000 per month translates to over $48,000 per year in new recurring revenue from an asset the property already owns.
Result 2. BART commuter vehicles became immediately identifiable as unauthorized once all vehicles required a registered permit to park. Enforcement officers checking plates against the database flagged every commuter vehicle.
Result 3. Residents reliably find parking: Resident-allocated spaces were available when residents needed them, with BART commuters out of the lot.
Result 4. Enforcement capability established for the first time: The management team went from having no enforcement tools to having a real-time database that any enforcement officer could query from the lot in seconds.
Result 5. Seven-plus years of sustained performance: Presidio Apartments has operated on Reliant Parking since January 2018, demonstrating more than seven years of continuous use.
What Presidio Apartments and Sares Regis Say About the Experience
“My rentable income increased over $4,000 per month in just 90 days.” (Presidio Apartments, Sares Regis Group)
The 90-day timeframe is as important as the dollar figure. Property managers reading this are not asking whether parking revenue is theoretically possible, but how quickly they can expect results. The timeline at Presidio, from zero permit infrastructure to $4,000 per month in new recurring income, was exactly three months.
The dollar figure shows a deliberate shift in how the 864-space lot was managed. Management moved from a free, unmonitored resource exploited by BART commuters to a structured system with resident permits, guest controls, and a fee-based, rentable space inventory. The revenue was created by replacing chaos with accountability.
What Property Managers Near Transit Stations Can Learn from Presidio Apartments
Lesson 1: Location is a parking risk factor that no physical barrier can solve without a permit system. A property near a transit station will always attract commuters looking for free parking as long as the lot is unmonitored. Building a fence or adding a gate does not solve the problem if there is no system to verify which vehicles belong. A permit system that requires every vehicle to be registered and verified is the only mechanism that makes transit-adjacent parking defensible.
Lesson 2: Zero prior infrastructure is not a barrier to getting started. Presidio Apartments started with no permit program, no vehicle records, and no enforcement database. The property manager reported over $4,000 per month in new rentable parking income within 90 days of implementing Reliant Parking. Starting from zero is not slower than transitioning from an old system, as it removes the complication of legacy data.
Lesson 3: The revenue from a managed parking lot near a transit hub is among the highest in residential real estate. BART commuters who used to park for free at Presidio owed unpaid parking fees totaling tens of thousands of dollars per year. Converting that value to the property rather than to the commuter is both a financial and a resident-fairness decision.
How First-Come, First-Served Parking Destroys Resident Satisfaction?
First-come, first-served parking in a residential community often disadvantages residents who need parking most and is also among the common residential parking problems. Early leavers occupy spaces needed by returning residents. This system was biased against residents at Presidio Apartments, where BART commuters arrived before most residents left for work. A permit system linking each space to a registered resident or visitor eliminates the first-come advantage and bases parking availability on authorization instead of arrival time.
How Did Parking Enforcement Work When There Was No Prior Permit System?
Starting parking enforcement at a property that has never had a permit system requires building the resident vehicle registration database before any enforcement action is taken. A vehicle cannot be cited or towed if the property is unable to prove first that it is unauthorized. Enforcement at Presidio Apartments became possible once the Reliant Parking database was populated with resident vehicle records, making any unregistered vehicle definitively unauthorized.
How Much Parking Revenue Can an Apartment Community Generate?
The amount of parking revenue an apartment community can generate depends on three variables. These variables include the number of spaces beyond basic resident allocation, the monthly fee per rentable space, and the effectiveness of enforcement in preventing non-payers from occupying the rentable inventory. Parking revenue increased from zero to over $4,000 monthly after implementing Reliant Parking at Presidio Apartments, totaling more than $48,000 annually. Notably, 34% of multifamily properties still offer free parking, indicating many communities miss out on significant revenue opportunities.
Why Apartments Near BART and Other Transit Hubs Face a Unique Parking Threat?
Apartments near BART parking face a parking abuse dynamic fundamentally different from general unauthorized parking. Commuter parking abuse transit trends create a predictable daily population of non-residents who exploit residential lots to avoid paid transit station and apartment parking fees. The only mechanism that closes this financial incentive gap for BART-adjacent residential parking is a digital permit system that identifies unauthorized vehicles instantly.
What Sares Regis Group Learned from 7 Years of Running Reliant Parking at the Presidio?
A seven-year retention of a software vendor for a property management company like Sares Regis Group is a stronger signal of satisfaction than any short-term case study result. It reflects that Reliant Paking continued to deliver value through staff changes, market shifts, and evolving resident populations. The $4,000 per month revenue result achieved in the first 90 days was a starting point, not a ceiling. A platform that generates recurring income and reduces daily management friction compounds its value over years, not months.
