Located in the heart of Grand Rapids, Michigan, 433 Bridge Street is a centrally located parking facility serving a tight-knit urban community. Jes Slaydon manages the property as part of a family-run parking operation with deep local roots. While the business had been built on traditional systems and in-person service, Slaydon recognized that modernizing the lot was necessary to keep up with the city’s evolving needs.
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Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Surface Lot
For years, the team at 433 Bridge St operated with gated equipment, coin-fed pay machines, and on-site staff managing the day-to-day. But over time, the system became less about managing an asset and more about putting out fires.
Gates jammed. Machines misread bills. Employees spent hours troubleshooting aging hardware instead of focusing on higher-value work. These operational headaches didn’t just waste time, they stalled profitability and wore down morale.
Even as frustrations mounted, making a major change wasn’t easy. The family had always done things a certain way, and the idea of going gateless felt risky. It wasn’t just a technology decision, it meant breaking with tradition.
“We’re a family business, and for us, parking wasn’t about getting rich. It was about doing right by the people in our neighborhood.”
After considering her options, Slaydon decided to partner with AirGarage. Despite her initial nervousness of the change, the transition was smooth, and the impact was immediate.
AirGarage removed the outdated equipment and replaced it with a gateless system powered by mobile payments and real-time enforcement. With no hardware to maintain, Slaydon’s team was no longer stuck managing machines. Instead, the lot began running itself.
“With AirGarage, it’s not just that we don’t have to fix machines anymore, it’s that the parking actually works. The whole system just flows.”
The shift also marked a major mindset change. By embracing modernization, Slaydon prioritized what was best for both the community and the business, even if it meant going against the way things had always been done.
“It was one of the first big decisions I made that went against what the family might have wanted, but it turned out to be the right one.”
With fewer operational fires to put out, Slaydon was free to focus on strategic improvements. The result was a dramatic increase in both revenue and efficiency. In the first year:
“We weren’t spending time fixing arms. We weren’t fixing machines just to read the money properly. It just worked, and it worked better than we imagined.”
What began as a “scary decision” became a business-changing one. Within six months, Slaydon transitioned two additional properties to AirGarage, transforming the family’s portfolio from labor-intensive to futureproof.
By letting go of legacy systems, 433 Bridge St gained something more valuable: control, clarity, and a frictionless experience for drivers and ownership alike.
