APT Parking Technologies, together with Westfalia Technologies, broke ground recently for New York City’s largest automated parking garage project – a 270-car facility to be part of a new, nine-story, 226,000-square-foot office building being developed by Baruch Singer on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, NY.
The automated facility is designed to maximize parking within the tight urban space constraints of the site. APT said the developer chose the two companies because of the superior quality and reliability of their existing automated garages around the world.
“The selection of our parking system highlights how automated parking can enhance a real estate development opportunity,” said Lee Lazarus, President of New York City-based APT. “Automated parking garages provide greater efficiency and flexibility in design, allowing the developer to use less space for parking and allocate additional space for significantly more profitable revenue streams.”
At this Brooklyn site, the high-water table prevented the developer from excavating down far enough to build a conventional parking garage. The reduced excavation needed for the automated parking system saved the developer money, while allowing a greater density of parking spaces in an area half the size of a traditional parking garage.
“In addition to doubling the number of parking spaces in the available space, the automated parking system provides a number of added personal and vehicle safety benefits, since no one actually enters the garage and there is no risk of vehicle damage or theft,” Singer said. “Additionally, there are significant “green’ benefits, since car engines are turned off during the parking process, and users have the convenience of dropping off and picking up their cars at a central location without having to navigate ramps, walk aimlessly through a garage searching for their cars, or risk crime associated with dark, deserted garages.”
Drivers will enter the automated parking garage, drive down one level, enter one of three transfer cabins, turn off their engines and leave. After a series of safety checks to ensure that the vehicle, parked on a pallet, is vacant, it is moved through the automated garage by a computer-operated system to an available parking space on the two levels below. When returning for their car, clients simply run their ticket through a smart card reader, and their car will automatically be returned to them in one of the transfer cabins. Vehicles will be rotated in the transfer cabins so that clients can drive straight out of the garage. The entire process takes less than two minutes.
“We are very excited to provide our state-of-the-art automated parking system as the solution to the parking needs at 1504 Coney Island Avenue,” said Daniel Labell, President of Westfalia, which has 30 years of experience in the design and construction of automated systems throughout the world. “We have built more than 350 automated storage facilities, including numerous automatic parking garages, around the globe, and we look forward to bringing these time-tested systems to the U.S. market.”
With Westfalia’s in-house engineering and manufacturing capabilities and APT’s development expertise, the companies say they are able to design the ideal parking garage to fit any location – above or below ground. This latest automated garage will be the first in the U.S. to be manufactured and installed completely by a U.S. company from Westfalia’s manufacturing facility in York, PA. The Coney Island automated garage is expected to be completed in mid-2010.
The APT-Westfalia team also is building a 300-car automated parking garage at the $200 million Lovejoy Wharf development on the Boston Harbor waterfront. And the team has proposals pending throughout the country, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Atlanta.