Consider the problem – I want to put up a multi use development, housing, shops, entertainment. I want to do it along Lincoln Boulevard in Los Angeles. It’s a perfect location – many people live within walking distance, good transportation and bus lines. The problem is that I now have to talk 200 land owners into selling me their property. One hold out can stop the entire deal. However along the route there are a number of large parking lots. Each has one owner. I could purchase the lot, build my complex with appropriate parking to replace what I just purchased, and all is right with the world.
Read the quote from this article:
“Parking lots are probably the largest underutilized depository of real estate in the country,” says Galina Tachieva
Or as Mark Puts it:
Using existing/already paid for land reduces the cost of any development, using existing parking spaces also means you don’t have additional costs with concurrency/fair share. Parking and Transportation Management could be (should be) the key to making new development feasible again. Our industry is absolutely critical to the future of this Country’s rebound and future growth. Infill development is not limited to the “urban” environment, the concept also needs to be applied to suburbia.
This isn’t only a central city issue, but also one that could take hold in the burbs. Don Shoup’s presentation includes a photo (nearby)
of a major electronics firm in San Jose, Ca. It’s surrounded by acres and acres of parking. (Don added, with photoshop, the apartments and stores around the perimeter of the parking lot). His point is why not turn that parking into townhouses and shops so people could live within walking distance of their jobs. Still leave enough parking for those who need it, but create a small high density “city” where people can live, work, play all within walking distance, and the land is already available, “Banked” by the firm for parking, most of it unused.
JVH
