Management Team Drowning in Packages? Multifamily Mail Room Solutions for the Online Ordering Era.

So, you’ve probably gotten used to staying indoors for a good portion of the year right?

That probably also means that you’ve changed your shopping habits quite a bit. You and probably most people you know have been making less of those extra small trips to the grocery store or non-essential ventures for drinks, gifts, gadgets, or dessert. We feel you. 

But it is SO EASY to buy anything online with no-contact delivery, free shipping, exchanges … the list goes on. Convenience is a hard habit to kick, right?

With the world slowly opening back up, the uptick in online spending and delivery shows no sign of waning. With the majority of the urban population seeking out goods online, the package and mail areas of multifamily properties have become some of the most important areas in a building.

Mail areas can be an integral part to the design of a multifamily property. Make them fun, interactive and useful.

Luckily, new and remodeled properties have handled this influx of deliveries with ease & beauty using: Technology, placement, and smart space allowances.

Technology: Everything nowadays is connected. When we place an online order we can essentially see every step our packages take until they arrive at our home. 

• By incorporating smart parcel systems like ParcelPending (LINK), Luxer One (LINK), or Amazon's Hub (LINK), residents know the second their packages arrive with assurance that they are safe until pickup. With these systems, management teams can focus more on resident needs and less on tracking down packages shoved into a repurposed break room. Most parcel systems also conveniently feature refrigerated compartments for grocery and food deliveries which can be seen as a bonus perk for those subscribing to produce subscription services.

Smart parcel systems allow management teams to spend more time interacting with prospective residents.

• Package rooms with intelligent controlled access are also effective ways to notify residents of deliveries while storing unclaimed deliveries securely. One great system, ButterflyMX (LINK), notifies a resident on their cell-phone when their package arrives, then gives them a unique code to unlock a package room. The system then snaps a time-stamped photo of those entering, just in case something other than their package might have been taken either intentionally or by accident. 

New technological developments have made it ever easier to accept, secure, and manage online deliveries.

Placement: Where deliveries go once they arrive at a property matters.

• Which entrance do delivery professionals use when getting to the property? Do they use the main entrance? Do they enter through a parking garage, alley or side entrance? When designing a space keep in mind that the adjacency of the entrance used by delivery personnel and the package area is of primary importance. Even professionals make mistakes and occasionally a dolly or package cart can have a mind of its own. That means that the really nice wall finish on the way to the package room may get a couple of dings & gashes over time. When space planning we always try to minimize the distance of this important span of circulation.

Placing mail/package areas on clear circulation paths minimizes property damage and is convenient for residents.

• Think about how your residents arrive home. Sure, the mail room of your building shouldn't be the star of the show, but we do want to consider ease of access for residents. Much like delivery workers, residents don't want to wander through a labyrinth after they get home from a long day of work or play. Make sure that your mail room is somewhere on the way to the elevator or stairs. We've found clever ways to both tuck these spaces away from common view as well as ways to spruce these areas up to be playful focal points to a design.

Package & Mail areas near elevator cores create a seamless feeling of arrival for building residents.

Space Allowance: Just how much precious lobby space does a mailroom need to occupy? With some knitty gritty ADA and USPS requirements, these areas take up more space than you might think.

• Each accessible mailbox unit by rule of thumb contains about 10 mailboxes as well as a parcel door and outgoing mail slot. Have 380 households on your property? That's 38 mailbox units.

The most common mail unit for ADA accessibility is the 10 box unit. Above shows 10 box units side by side to create a furniture-like mail room design.

• Depending on how your accessible households (ADA Type A or Type B) are distributed on your property, there are other mailbox units that could be used in order to take up less mailroom real estate. ADA households are assigned specific mailboxes within reach range while non-ADA households are assigned other mailboxes either in or out of reach range.

Larger mailbox units can be used when ADA accessible units are specified to mailboxes within required reach ranges.

• Other requirements that have an effect on mailroom square footage are clearances from mailboxes to side walls, circulation clearance, and face to face mailbox clearance.

When planning mail/package areas, it is important to understand how accessibility and USPS required clearances dictate how much square footage is required for a functional layout.

Useful package areas are great amenities! Simple additions that require minimal square footage like packaging areas can make an otherwise mundane area very useful.  Small lounge areas near or even in mail areas can provide nice nooks for residents to work, read, or hold quick conversations away from lobby traffic. Mail areas can also be included into larger amenity areas such as laundry areas to create a lively environment increasing the possibility of social interactions in your community.

Combining Mail/Parcel Areas with other amenities can increase interaction among residents.

With more people ordering basic goods online (in addition to other online shopping,) residents are spending more and more time in these areas, so make them interesting! The most appealing and useful mail rooms integrate new technologies, are placed thoughtfully within a property and have ample space for movement and socialization.

Mail areas in multifamily properties can and should be an integral part of a property’s design.