Miami Condo Building To Install World’s Largest, Tallest Automated Parking System
A New Jersey-based company has been contracted to install a robotic parking system in a 46-story condo building in Miami.
It will be the largest and tallest automated guided vehicle, or AGV, parking system in the world, according to a May 26 announcement from Park Plus, which is taking over the job after a different parking provider allegedly installed a faulty system and the condo association sued.
Brickell House, built in 2014 by Newgard Development Group, has 374 condo units, a rooftop pool, a theater, a spa and two restaurants. It was also supposed to have a robotic parking system that would automatically park cars in 420 spaces over 13 floors.
But in November 2015, the parking system installed by Boomerang Systems was closed after residents complained that it malfunctioned and took hours for them to get their cars, The Real Deal reported. It wasn't the only such lawsuit. The New York Times in 2015 detailed other legal feuds over failed automated parking garages, including another one in Miami Beach that involved both Boomerang and Park Plus. In 2019, a jury found Park Plus partially liable for a defective project in Boulder, Colorado.
Brickell House's condominium association sued the development group BrickellHouseHoldings and in 2019 won a $41M judgment. The condo association also won $32M from an insurer for the garage issues. Boomerang Systems went bankrupt.
The condo association has now contracted with Park Plus to replace the existing automated parking system with a new one and provide preventive maintenance for 15 years. Park Plus has completed several dozen parking projects around the country.
Once permits are issued, the Brickell House project will take an estimated 77 weeks to complete. It is expected to provide 411 parking places, with 80 spaces reserved for electric vehicle charges. At first, valet staff will help residents and guests park their cars, but eventually, the system will work as self-parking.
According to the announcement, Park Plus' AGV system consists of "free-roaming, self-charging, omni-directional robots using traffic management software, markers, vision systems and lasers for self-guidance to manage the automated storage and retrieval of vehicles on trays."
Residents and guests will use a smartphone app to park and retrieve their cars. The app can send push notifications to tell a car's position in the queue and when it is ready to drive. Residents can issue visitor passes through the app, and the system can manage electric vehicle charging.
Park Plus Group President Paul Bates said in the announcement that the problem caused by the prior parking company set back the AGV industry, but this retrofit will prove to the world that it is a viable technology.
"We are very excited about the project, proud to be involved and to resolve an industry problem."
The AGV system is compatible with electric vehicles and is remotely monitored 24/7, and the Brickell project will include new-generation AGVs that have inductive charging.
Yaidyt Hernandez of the Brickell House Condominium Association said in a statement that a consultant, Kingfisher Technical Solutions, was used to find a new solution to the dilemma.
“We looked at experience in the market, the type of technology and the capacity offering," Hernandez said. "We wanted no structural changes, with similar capacity to the original garage and reasonable long-term costs."
Park Plus is based in New Jersey and has a 15K SF facility in Dania Beach.
According to a 2020 report from Grand View Research, the automated parking system market was valued globally at $1.23B in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9% from 2020 to 2027.
