1VALET’s Smart Buildings – The Lanes Condos Case Study

12/06/2021
5 minute read

Introduction

In early 2021, The Lanes Condos, a new 142 unit condominium development by Edzar Group, opened its doors for occupancy. Located in the East York region of Toronto, The Lanes is a new and innovative development conveniently located to promote an active and exciting lifestyle for residents. As The Lanes approached occupancy, management began experiencing many of the same issues currently affecting multi-residential developers and asset managers today – Parcel management, parking management, building access control, and overall resident safety. In need of a platform that centralized these subsystems and controls, Edzar Group reached out to 1VALET. 1VALET is a smart Building Operating System that combines hardware, software, and services to make multi-residential buildings better places to live and work. By centralizing all building systems into one web-based dashboard and empowering residents with a leading Resident App, 1VALET is able to enhance resident engagement, and create safer, smarter communities. After reviewing their needs, 1VALET was able to provide The Lanes and Edzar group with a solution that allowed them to manage parking, smart building access control, and overall resident safety, while also providing their residents with an innovative living experience.

The Story of The Lanes at O’Connor

Edzar Group of Companies, the visionaries behind the Lanes Condos, found themselves with a site steeped in 65 years of O’Connor Bowl cultural heritage. In a mission to create a modern community that preserved this heritage, Edzar Group partnered with award-winning architects and interior designers such as Turner Fleischer and Johnson Chou. Together they developed what is now The Lanes Residences at O’Connor Bowl; 142 exceptionally designed suites that blend history with contemporary design. With such an emphasis on The Lanes’ design, Edzar Group wanted to ensure the resident experience matched the community’s high visual standards. This included solutions for building access, parking management, and overall building security.

Platform Installation

As occupancy at The Lanes loomed, Edzar Group had yet to find a security system that successfully addressed all of their needs. Many of the solutions they had inquired about had significant turn-around times that would have prevented them from being fully installed before occupancy. Others were too costly, had significant infrastructural or wiring requirements, or weren’t comprehensive enough to address every one of Edzar Group’s pain points. In discovering 1VALET, Edzar Group not only found a solution for building security and access control, they discovered a comprehensive Building Operating System that would help them address all of their needs at once. Before move-in day, 1VALET worked together with the team at The Lanes to install two Smart Entry Systems on the first floor, one at each building access door. In the parking garage, an access control reader was installed at the elevator vestibule door for resident entry, and an electric door opener was added to the visitor entrance door into the garage from outside. To manage this hardware and these security systems, The Lanes Condos also received 1VALET’s Building Operating System, a web-based software platform that combines all of these independent systems into one easy-to-manage platform. With its 1VALET’s Property Management Portal, a web-based dashboard that allows Edzar Group staff to remotely manage The Lanes from anywhere. The Property Management Portal provides control of all the connected subsystems in the building. For the Edzar Group, this includes a number of systems. The portal will integrate with their CCTV security cameras, which will allow them to keep an eye on the property from anywhere, and remotely open doors if needed. Once integrated, their resident information and access control systems will allow them to manage building access and navigation for their tenants. It will also provide them with an end-to-end parking solution that manages visitor access and lets residents open the garage door with their phone. Along with managing amenity booking, access logs and much more, 1VALET was able to provide Edzar Group with a complete smart building platform that exceeded their needs. To navigate and connect with their building, residents installed the 1VALET Resident App, which allows them to use their mobile phone as a digital key to enter the building, common areas, as well as their suite. They can book amenities, receive messages from staff, video calls from the Entry System, and provide guest access into the garage through SMS text invites. The 1VALET Resident App also made move-in day seamless by allowing residents to register their information and booking elevators ahead of time.

The Experience

Details matter. For The Lanes Condos and Edzar Group, something as small as branding the interface of the Smart Entry Systems to feature their logo, an ode to the site’s bowling heritage, made all the difference. Details like this make people like Natalie, resident and Concierge of The Lanes, think of 1VALET’s platform as a “customizable and personalized experience (…) it’s so catered, it’s so unique and personalized to our building.” For The Lanes’ elderly demographic, the new technology was something they weren’t quite used to. With the support of 1VALET’s Customer Success Team, they were able to help those residents navigate the intuitively-designed Resident App, and have them completely integrated in no time.

The Results

With the addition of 1VALET’s Building Operating System, Edzar Group was able to successfully address all of their pain points before their occupancy day. From building security and access, to parking management and overall building security, The Lanes now have a comprehensive smart building platform and resident experience to match their sophisticated community. Edzar Group began this project with the goal of blending history with contemporary design. With the help of 1VALET, they created much, much more. Listen to Natalie’s testimonial about her experience with 1VALET below.

Transcribed From Video

Hi my name is Natalie, I live and work at The Lanes residences. So, we’ve been using 1VALET for a few things including amenity booking, entry access. It’s been integrated into our construction and now that people are actually living at the condo we’ve heard great things from our residents. People are particularly fond of the facial recognition, they are really excited about that, it’s really cool. Amenity booking is really easy, really convenient. We have residents moving in everyday and they are booking the elevator to move-in. It’s been pretty seamless so far. Our parking garage had very specific needs and 1VALET was always very responsive to those. The call customer service aspect of 1VALET has been incredibly impressive, they’re so responsive and so open to our suggestions. We have had different problems come up and they’ve come up with such creative solutions that it just really feels like such a customizable and personalized experience and we’ve been really pleased with that. It’s so catered, it’s very unique, it’s very personalized to our building. We do have a few older people living in the building who maybe aren’t as comfortable using technology, but we found that once we kind of show them how to use the 1VALET app they get it almost right away. It’s been very impressive how easy and functional the app is to use. It’s very user-friendly, even people who are not used to technology are having good experiences with it, so that’s been really nice. You’re able to book amenities, you can access the building, you can get into the parking garage all through 1VALET and it’s just a really exciting experience. You don’t see this anywhere else, it’s been quite the exciting program to put in place.