“I really should have been a cowboy,” says James C. Berry – the 80-year-old Chairman and CEO of Republic Parking System, Inc. and owner of a commercial real estate business, the Jim Berry Company. He has retreated from his 20th floor corner office -with its panorama Lookout Mountain view, buffed cherry desk and lampshade with a price tag dangling inside – to an alcove secreted behind a paneled pocket door.
This paper-strewn “man cave” is Berry’s command center, the inner sanctum. The furniture is beige; the blinds closed. A bag of Extra Value Intense Dark Ghirardelli chocolates sits next to a flashing, multi-decked phone. There is no cell phone, no computer – his secretary prints out his important emails.
Surrounded by stacks of documents, a photo of his grandson and a decades-old picture of his daughter standing in Daddy’s shoes, the most powerful parking player in the country talks about his dreams.
The Basics
Born: June 23, 1930
Raised: Chickasaw County, Miss.
Wife: Carlydia Berry
Family: 5 children, 9 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren“I stayed at home yesterday and – quote – rode the range in my Jeep Cherokee,” says Berry. He owns a 400-plusacre farm called “The Last Frontier,” near Birchwood, a 45-minute drive and 26 miles away. “But civilization’s beginning to catch up with me. People are moving out to the country, and it’s beginning to annoy me. I like to be where it’s free, where the deer and the buffalo roam – I like what I call ‘elbow room.'”
For 60 years, Berry has made a fortune in “elbow room.” A hot commodity in post-World War II, Berry caught a ride in the parking industry’s turbocharged machine. As the world became ever more car-loving and crowded, he struck gold in black tar and asphalt, mining crowded spaces stuffed with thousands of people desperately seeking spots to stow an SUV. Berry’s Air Terminal Parking Company began as any small business would, with an educated risk, a sales route, a carefully targeted clientele. Today, his Republic Parking Systems, Inc. is one of the largest privately held parking management services companies in the country, with revenues of $360 million a year and about 2,600 employees.