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Long Beach Parking Solutions

 

Last month the Long Beach Real Estate Home Blog published an article on Downtown Long Beach Parking.  The article discussed the escalating parking problems caused by the re-development in the Downtown Long Beach area.  One of the potential parking solutions addressed was Vertical Parking.  The article went on and examined an assortment of related potential issues and raised a whole bunch of questions for which there were no immediate solutions.  

 

Shortly after publishing this article I was contacted by the owner of Apex Skypark.  They are a Robotic Parking Solution company located right here in Anaheim.  He took the time to address the concerns and informed me that they are currently working with the City of Long Beach in an attempt to bring these solutions to the Downtown Long Beach and Belmont Shore neighborhoods.  Well, both communities can certainly use more parking - he piqued my interest. 

 

An invitation to contribute to the Long Beach Real Estate Home Blog was extended to Apex in an effort to better explain this to Long Beach residents.  We are pleased to welcome Harold W Ashworth, a Long Beach Peninsula resident and Vice President of Apex Skypark.

 

 

By:  Harold W Ashworth

 

I have become intimately involved with The City of Long Beach and their Parking Issues. Working with the Long Beach Re-Development Agency has shown me just how critical parking is in the Downtown Long Beach area. As a Long Beach Resident (The Peninsula) I have experienced many of the same issues everyone else faces as they try and Park on 2^nd Street in Belmont Shore for dinner in the evenings and or dinner on the waterfront at Shoreline Village. Whether it is waiting for the Valet to bring your car or running out to re-fill the meter has become quite the challenge.

 

That being said - The Automated Robotic Car Garages hits close to home for me as I am involved with a local company right here in our own backyard. Apex Skypark®, Inc., located in Anaheim, builds the Robotics and Systems for this new Technology - New to the USA only. Presently there are only 4-5 Garages operating in the USA but many are either under construction or they are in the design phases. We are currently working with Developers and the City of Long Beach on a couple of locations for this very thing. Long Beach will become the first on the West Coast for an Automated Robotic Garage.

 

There were some very important and concerning facts you brought up and I will try to address those for you here. First of all you should know that Robotic Parking is not any less than Conventional Parking as far as costs are concerned but we can basically get more into less space. Here are some of the concerns you addressed with my response.

Lots in Downtown Long Beach

• Great Research!! You know your city! There are many lots going away and along with that Parking Spaces

 

Expensive Equipment

• As I stated the cost many times is equal or less than traditional parking. To build a conventional garage it presently costs the City app. $35,000 per parking space not including the land. If you go below grade the costs escalates quite dramatically. Unlike Traditional Garages that for every level you go up it gets more expensive Automated actually goes down in cost.

 

Expensive Operations

• The economics are quite interesting actually. In a recent exercise we did for the City we analyzed a popular Parking Lot in downtown and concluded that their Expense per Parking space is $10.91 per day compared to $3.11 for Automated - Substantially less.

 

Parts Required and availability

• Skypark® components are designed and built with "Off the Shelf" components that are readily accessible from almost any local supplier. This is designed intentionally so the end user will never be faced with this exact issue.

 

Trained Personnel Engineers and Mechanics

• Each System that is delivered has Personnel fully trained in our facility; additionally we also encourage a local Elevator Trained company to partner with Skypark® and the Customer. Basically the System is a sophisticated Elevator System and any company that works on elevators can work on this System.

 

What happens if your car is on one of the upper levels and the Equipment breaks down?

• The System is designed with Redundancy. For instance there is not just one Robot and Trolley System. The Robot/Trolley is actually two Robots and if one fails then the other can literally push or pull the other one. There are also other Robots in the System to take over. In the event of Power failure there is a Diesel Generator that will automatically take over within 20 seconds. As a last resort the System has a Manual Override.

 

What if the Part is unavailable and has to be imported from Japan

• All components are sourced from the USA or have actually been designed by the Team at Skypark®. There is also a Spare Parts Kit included with every System. Periodic Regular Scheduled Maintenance is required which in most cases will prevent any System Breakdown.

 

How could all of this be kept affordable?

• Using State of the Art Technology and low Maintenance Costs

 

Who do you call if the System fails?

• Skypark® or the local Authorized and Trained Maintenance Company

 

What happens if it is very late at night?

• 24/7 is always on Call

 

24 hour availability?

• YES many times we can look at the System via Computer modem and repair or determine exactly what the issue is.

 

Time to retrieve your car.

• Typically in most cases 1-2 min

 

Fear of retrieving your car in the middle of the night.

• Each Garage has a Safe and well lit Waiting Room

 

Large influx of people after work to retrieve their car.

• There are many ways to alleviate this multiple Exit Modules, Call Ahead Retrieval, Valet, etc. The System's Computer is designed to understand that there are certain vehicles that come and go at different times and as those "Peak" times approach the system will move cars from different levels down closer to the Exit points thus creating a smooth and positive experience.

 

 

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