To some it might sound strange, but this parking garage is a huge selling point for a developing upscale property in Manhattan.
DHA Capital and Continental Properties just broke ground on 12 East 13th Street in Greenwich Village and it will have one of the most sophisticated parking garages in the world.
How sophisticated can a parking garage be? Turns out, very.
Park Plus, which specializes in all types of parking systems, began offering stacking mechanisms for cars in high-density places like New York City more than 40 years ago. Since then, it has borrowed technology from shipping and manufacturing industries to propell itself to the forefront of parking garages.
The company's Automated Guided Vehicle Technology (AGV) was just installed for the first time in Brooklyn and 12 East 13th Street will also have it when it's completed next spring.
Ryan Astrup, the Director of Park Plus, shared some of the details with Design & Trend.
"It's technology that is going to revolutionize the parking system," he said.
The system is largely unique because it is completely automated. Anyone with a space will be able to pull their car into a loading bay and the garage will do the rest. A guidance system will park the cars and when owners need them again, they request to have them retrieved at a kiosk.
A rendering of an AGV parking system for 12 East 13th Street.
Park Plus also is developing a mobile application for residents so they can call for their car to be brought to the kiosk before they arrive. Although, it only takes the system about 90 seconds to retrieve a vehicle.
"What's also unique is the system matches the pattern of a user. For a car used only weekends or only once a month, [the system] will put that one toward the back. Others will be made more accessible," Astrup said. "It learns these patterns and makes the system more efficient over time."
It's not just a parlor trick to show guests either. The system eliminates the need for a parking attendant and will maximize space. Properties in the neighborhood are going for upwards of $3,000 per square foot and getting the most of every one of them is crucial.
Originally, 12 East 13th Street was going to have street-level self-parking, according to Josh Schuster, the Principal and Co-Founder of DHA Capital. That scenario wasn't ideal so they sought a better option.
Schuster said by law, spaces in self-parking garages must be at least 250 square feet, which would have allowed for only six spots at the new development. The AGV system by Park Plus will mean more spaces, more room for other amenities and enable the developers to move the parking to the second floor of the building. The first floor will then be available for retail.
Schuster said generally, the second floor is less desirable anyway.
Specific details of the custom AGV system are still unknown but Astrup said they are running between $15,000 to as much as $60,000 per parking space, just for the equipment. He didn't know what level of investment would need to be made so the structure could support the system and vehicles.
That sounds like an awful lot of money for parking but considering the benefits and expense of the homes, it was an easy amenity to decide on.
Schuster said the sales office for 12 East 13th Street opened less than two months ago and already more than 500 brokers have stopped by.
"They have been very impressed with the system," he said. "It's great marketing, [buyers] want to be the first to have a robotic parking space."
He said there will be eight units that range from $7.5 to $31 million for the three-story, 5,700-square-foot penthouse.
A few of the units have outdoor space and all of them have 10-and-a-half-foot ceilings.
Below are more renderings of 12 East 13th Street. You can view floor plans of the properties here.
12 East 13th Street.An interior rendering of 12 East 13th StreetAn interior rendering of 12 East 13th StreetAnd interior rendering of 12 East 13th Street.
