Hidden inside a 46-story luxury condominium building in Miami is a giant garage where dozens of busy robots shuttle cars to parking spots.
The futuristic 24/7 operation spans a 13-story garage and includes five car elevators, dozens of lasers, and hundreds of barcodes embedded in the floor. Residents who park their cars in one of the building’s five drive-up bays will save valuable time searching for a spot and hand over their car to a robot attendant who will park it for them.
Five bays with self-service kiosks provide access to the building’s automated parking garage.
Ginger Monteleone
Brickell House, which has about 375 condominiums, has the largest and tallest automated parking system of its kind, said Park+, the company that built it. I am.
Autonomous parking is a growing trend in luxury real estate, with kiosks, car lifts, and parking robots now installed in buildings from New York to Miami. Popular spots in Manhattan’s luxury condos can start at $300,000. Meanwhile, the real estate agent representing the five-bedroom penthouse at Brickell House told CNBC that the $15 million asking price includes five parking spaces in the sci-fi-like building.
One of five vehicle elevators in the automated parking system.
Ginger Monteleone
These modern parking facilities are part of the so-called smart parking market, which includes a wide range of solutions from automated parking to digital payment systems. According to Grand View Research, the global smart parking market was valued at $6.5 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $30.16 billion by 2030, with a large share of that market in North America.
A Park Plus representative told CNBC that U.S. demand for state-of-the-art automated systems like Brickell House is primarily driven by luxury residential projects in high-density urban areas, while auto dealerships, hospitals , hotels, parking lots and private businesses are driving that demand, he said. Car collectors and private homes often choose less advanced mechanical systems.
A view from the top of the 13-story car elevator in the garage.
Ginger Monteleone
Inside the world’s largest robo-parking system
The Brickell House garage is off limits to humans and controlled by 29 robots, also known as automated guided vehicles (AGVs).
AGVs are essentially free-roaming, self-charging robo-parkers that use vision systems, lifts, and lasers to precisely park and retrieve vehicles. It’s 12 feet long and 4 feet wide with a steel platform just 10 inches off the floor.
Hidden beneath the powerful machine, which can carry vehicles up to 6,000 pounds, are eight wheels, bright flashing lights, and an electronic eye that can read barcodes embedded in the floor for guidance. .
System 29 Robo-Parker, also known as an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV).
Ginger Monteleone
The nimble robots appear to slip under vehicles and effortlessly carry them between floors and in and out of car lifts. They adhere to a calculated division of labor. Some AGVs simply move cars onto and off lifts, while others are tasked with moving cars from floor to floor or to spots. Vehicles entering and exiting the system may be handled by up to three AGVs passing vehicles from one robot colleague to another.
Additionally, because there is no need for humans to enter or exit the vehicle, vehicles can be parked just 2 inches apart, making parking very precise.
An AGV prepares to park a Ferrari inside Brickell House’s automated parking system.
Ginger Monteleone
When CNBC visited the ParkPlus system, our team equipped a Ferrari 488 Spider with a camera to record the automated search process. I went from the ninth floor of the garage to the first floor bay in less than four minutes.
According to ParkPlus, rigorous testing is key to system operation and risk mitigation. The robot demonstrated that it could move 15 vehicles in and out of the garage for 40 hours straight without a single problem.
Roboparking ROI
The cost of automated systems like the one at Brickell House varies widely from building to building, but typically ranges from $20,000 to $80,000 per location, said Peter Manis, president of Park Plus Florida. .
That cost is on top of the amount the developer has already spent constructing the building’s garage level. Mannis declined to reveal the exact price of the system installed at Brickell House, but given the parking capacity of the garage in Mannis’ estimated cost range, the price range is between $8 million and $32 million. It’s going to be in the dollar range.
An automated guided vehicle, or AGV, transports the Ferrari through the PARKPLUS parking system.
Ginger Monteleone
One of the primary motivations for building developers to spend millions of dollars on parking automation is the system’s ability to maximize valuable square footage. Manis told CNBC that in some cases, automated systems can optimize square footage up to three times more efficiently than traditional garages.
“You don’t have a driving ramp, you don’t have a turnaround, you don’t have two different lanes, you can squeeze them right next to each other,” Manis said.
By making better use of parking spaces, developers have fewer floors dedicated to vehicles, freeing up square footage for residential use and potentially increasing apartment sales.
The system’s two AGVs work together to retrieve the Mercedes from the automated parking system and deliver it to the vehicle lift.
Ginger Monteleone
High-tech parking and multi-million dollar headaches
Naturally, any new technology presents some initial challenges.
Palmer Lackey, the billionaire who founded virtual reality company Oculus VR and military weapons maker Anduril Industries, filed a lawsuit earlier this year after he became stuck in an elevator in his garage.
Mr. Lackey purchased a mansion in Newport Beach, California, and converted it into a multi-story garage with an elevator and scissor lift for his car collection. In a lawsuit against Mr. Lackey’s builder and subcontractors, the billionaire said the elevator “repeatedly ceased vertical motion without warning, trapping the occupants inside.”
The mansion, which was turned into a garage, is now unusable and Lucky has suffered “millions of dollars in damages,” according to the suit, although the exact amount will be determined at trial.
Palmer Lackey Billionaire Founder of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries
CNBC
In response, a lawyer for the builder told CNBC that the customer has filed a cross-complaint alleging that the elevator and the elevator were installed at the expense of a professional subcontractor that Palmer personally approved to build the elevator. . Meanwhile, the subcontractor filed a motion to strike out the claims in the lawsuit, but did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Back in Miami, Brickell House had a parking nightmare that made headlines. In 2016, long before the new AGV system was installed, the condominium association filed a complaint against the building’s developer, alleging that the parking system was not working properly. Residents’ cars were reportedly trapped in a system installed by a bankrupt parking company, which eventually led to the garage being closed and the building being left without on-site parking for years, according to the complaint.
“The failure of the[previous]system was the Achilles heel of our industry,” said Paul Bates, president of Park Plus Group.
A jury awarded the condominium association more than $40 million in damages, according to court documents. This remains one of the largest construction defect judgments in Florida history.
The condominium association, which declined to discuss past litigation with CNBC, also reportedly received a $32 million insurance settlement over the system.
For Bates, Brickell House’s new ParkPlus system, installed starting in 2022, helped end a dark chapter in automated parking.
“Brickell House and these familiar concerns have led the industry to innovate, improve system reliability, and focus on risk mitigation,” Bates said.
