Real commercial parking

Real Estate Weekly, April 18, 2001 by Elaine Misonzhnik

AdWalls wants to decorate your garage

Looking for a way to improve the aesthetic value of your buildings? AdWalls might be just the thing for you.

According to the owners of the Honolulu-based billboard design firm, a bright, well-positioned poster can liven up a normally drab place like a garage, simultaneously providing the owner with a substantial source of revenue.

"The primary benefit to owners is that we can provide an income stream without any additional expanses or efforts on their part," says John Rowe, founder and president of AdWalls. "And we are actually leasing space from them."

AdWalls specializes in creating indoor advertising billboards, using digital print technology and vinyl materials. Their properties of choice are parking garages in large commercial buildings and shopping malls, where the space is ample and the tenants are happy to see something colorful.

AdWalls takes care of the installation and maintenance of the ads and the owner reserves the right to veto any given advertisement if it doesn't suit his taste.

"Typically, the landlords receive 20-25% of advertising revenues, depending on the quantity and quality of the space," Jeff Zimmerman, vice president of the company, explains. "It comes up to about $20,000 per year. And the ads are custom-made."

"What AdWalls has done is identify the space that landlords have already spent money on and put it to use," says Rowe. "We survey the walls, produce the ads, maintain the ads, and all the landlord has to do is approve the individual artwork."

At the current moment, AdWalls does business in almost 20 states, includ-ing New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, California, and Illinois. And although they would not disclose any names, Rowe and Zimmerman claim that they have con tracts with some of the biggest advertisers in the business.

"Some of our clients are Fortune 500 companies, some are just very well known, typically in the areas of insurance, telecommunications, and financial services," Zimmerman says.

And on the landlord side, they have contracts with such giants as TrizecHahn Properties and Equity Office.

But this is New York City. Will the tenants feel distracted?

"We have not had any complaints," Zimmerman assures. "All we really do is take a blank wall that has no value and make it colorful."