It’s not easy to sell a luxury condominium these days, and buyers just aren’t as satisfied with indoor swimming pools and marble-laden chef’s kitchens as they once were. Enter the automated parking system — complete with sensors and robotic platforms — that developers are featuring more and more at their new developments.
Before the real estate crash in 2008, automated parking starting showing up at a few projects in Downtown Manhattan. The systems are now making something of a comeback in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reported.
At the Waverly, Orange Management’s 48-unit condo development at 502 Waverly Avenue in Clinton Hill, for example, the drivers leave their car on a metal tray embedded in the floor. The car is then measured and photographed and lowered onto a machine that puts it on a vacant rack. When the owner returns, the car is retrieved.
It’s a similar story at 325 Henry Street in Cobble Hill where the developer, OTL Enterprise, told the journal automated parking it installed has sped up sales. At World Wide Group and Rose Associates’ 252 East 57th Street condo owners will have access to an automated parking bay with 54 spaces, according to the publication. And Related Companies’ 520 West 28th Street development near the High Line will also use the technology. [WSJ] — Miriam Hall