Parking facilities are good place to make first impression.

Commercial and residential building owners in New York City have, since time immemorial, taken great pains to insure that their public spaces are meticulously maintained - lobby entrances must be stately and well-lighted; corridors and elevator cabs must be neat, clean, and free of debris; floors must be highly polished; and terraces and outdoor plazas tastefully landscaped.

Yet one public area in many buildings is overlooked with astounding frequency: the parking garage or lot. This is ironic, because very often the parking area represents the first impression a visitor gets of a particular building, to say nothing of the rental income stream it creates for the property.

I realized this 40 years ago when I purchased my very first parking garage in Manhattan. I named my company Gallery Garage Management Corp. (GGMC) because we actually turn our garages into art galleries, by decorating the walls with collages of fine art posters and photography. We install soft but abundant light to mimic the feeling one gets in an art museum, and have instituted a rigorous maintenance and refurbishment schedule for the upkeep of each facility.

As a garage operator, we believe it is our duty to enhance the value of the property we serve by operating our parking concessions to provide a high level of professionalism and courtesy, coupled with making the physical space itself as attractive as possible with bright, colorful, well-maintained interiors enhanced by artwork. Our philosophy is that parking areas represent several thousand square feet of functional space that can be embellished to bolster and protect the overall value of a building.

Our two most recent concessions, the garage at 711 Third Avenue and the Republic Bank parking lot at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, are prime examples of our focus on aesthetic detail. At 711, new owners SL Green Realty Corp. brought us in to create a bright and airy facility that's alive with color and artwork. At the Republic lot, we took a development site and transformed it into a professional parking service center that operates in complete harmony with its location adjacent to the venerable New York Public Library, and provided it with a physical appearance that befits its position as the backyard of a landmark office building.

And that is key. A parking operation should never be a disruption to the serenity of a neighborhood or an exception to your building's impeccable appearance and quality professional service. Instead, your parking concessionaire should be thought of as a service contractor. It is not merely a tenant or buyer renting or purchasing space from you to use as it sees fit - it is operating out of your building and should be an asset that complements your other building services.

As a building owner, you should demand that those wishing to serve as your parking operator add value to your enterprise. Ask yourself if a specific operator's emphasis on service, efficiency, courtesy, professional appearance, security and maintenance will bring compliments from tenants and guests, attract even more quality tenants and give your property a competitive edge in the real estate market. If you can't answer in the affirmative, then your search for a parking company - no matter how much the organization is willing to pay to operate out of your building - is not over. Though it may be a cliche, it's eminently true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Since many visitors and potential tenants arrive by car, often the first impression is made in the parking garage, rather than the lobby.