The seminal book on vehicle storage, by Donald Shoup, is titled “The High Cost of Free Parking.” That certainly does not apply to a new Centerpark project in Manhattan.
The parking garage operator has converted one of its traditional rental garages into a condominium for cars, selling spaces outright, according to Bloomberg.
Centerpark’s garage has 23 spaces at The Mayfair building at 301 East 69th Street in Lenox Hill. Some are listed for as much as $350,000.
The firm even hired Douglas Elliman’s Kirsten Jordan and Nicholas Lounsbury to market the properties.
A Douglas Elliman listing for one $200,000 space pitches it as “an investment in convenience.”
Many condo buildings in New York sell parking spots to residents, but typically don’t allow non-residents to buy spots.
Centerpark’s parking condos, however, are open to anyone who’s got the coin. A space owner at the Mayfair garage gets 185 square feet — enough to fit a car and some stuff.
Centerpark’s CEO Gregg Reuben said that the company could convert three of its other 17 rental garages into condos.
It seems to be a good time to put them on the market — more New Yorkers are driving and fewer are taking public transit.
Vehicle registrations in Manhattan were up 27 percent year-over-year in 2020. As of mid-July, weekly subway ridership was down 54 percent from pre-Covid levels, Bloomberg reported.
Reuben noted that there are fewer street spaces these days as well. Outdoor dining and new bike lanes have eliminated as many as 10,000 street parking spaces, he claimed.
[Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch