SyncPark Creates Value
SyncPark is the right solution for any real estate developer, architect, engineer, property owner, municipality or department of transportation seeking to maximize land use and property value. Beyond selling SyncPark systems for new projects and renovations, we want to create strategic partnerships that can rethink project design to maximize the advantages of the SyncPark and build a working relationship that yields the best design at the lowest cost.
SyncPark is ideally suited to any entity seeking to use less than ±150 square feet of area (±14m²) and 7 feet of height (2.1m), for ±1,050 ft³ of volume (30m³) per parking space. This compares to field parking that requires ±250 sf of area (23m²) or structure parking that needs ±425 square feet of area (±39m²) and 11 feet of height (3.4m), for ±4,675 ft³ of volume (132m³).
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That's a long walk! |
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This means a project can reduce area devoted to parking by roughly 65% compared to traditional field or single level parking solutions and use only 25% to 35% of the volume of a structured garage, a volume savings of between 75% and 65%.
Our objective is to change how buildings are built, transport is serviced and land is used by supplying to industry the first practical, affordable and reliable automated parking system. It is unimportant to us if these savings result in a project that requires less land, reduced excavation, lower overall height or is awarded greater density and can meet zoning requirements with less effort. Ideally this will all serve customers better.
See our In The Works page to learn how we are putting the ideas and concepts described below into practice in the real world. This is not a fantasy!
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Transit Oriented Development and the New Urbanism
Municipalities that are blessed with great public transit links can be cursed by the need to devote large swaths of arguably their most valuable land to parking: often the more valuable the land, the larger the shortage of parking to serve the transit hub.
SyncPark offers to town planners and real estate developers the possibility of making this land vastly more productive by developing smart, TOD developments, while at the same time eliminating parking wait lists, which in turn improves access to and revenue for the associated transit system. In addition, municipalities can consolidate parking around the transit hub and free further away lots for a higher and better use.
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By way of example, a preliminary study of Greenwich CT’s main train station shows that there are five field lots serving the train station for a total of 1,160 spaces spread over nearly seven acres of some of the most valuable land in the United States. (In addition, there is on-street commuter parking and a lot under a station-side office building.) Taking advantage of SyncPark, all of this parking, and enough to satisfy the multi-year waiting list, can be located on the single Horseneck Lot in a 16’ high (4.8m), two-story building with reasonable setbacks and a façade that improves the neighborhood aesthetic – one that completely hides the parking – and thus frees up the other lots, including waterfront property, for whatever use the community deems best. Lots further away from the train station can be converted to hourly parking, allowing easier access to downtown retailers. Political feasibility is another matter.
Similar conditions exist at nearly every train station on commuter lines serving every major city around the world.
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Retail
It is not uncommon for retail developments to use more land for parking than for the stores themselves. With SyncPark, this calculation can change dramatically which will allow larger retail developments closer to population centers where land is getting scarcer by the minute. Municipalities can require malls to provide up to 5 cars per 1,000 sf of retail space, especially in more urban areas where street parking is at a premium.
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Where to park? |
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Using an example of a two story, one million square foot mall required to supply 4 parking spaces per 1,000 sf of built area, that mall would need to provide 4,000 parking spaces. The mall building itself would cover a footprint of ±500,000 square feet or nearly 23 acres, the parking would take up nearly 21 acres if field parking is supplied for a total of 44 acres of land. Assuming a structured lot could be built, the structure would need approximately 1,600,000 square feet of space, which if in a dedicated a 44’ high four-story structure would need over 9 acres of land for a total of 32 acres. SyncPark would require less than 600,000 square feet, nearly all of which would be placed in a 8’ lower level below the mall; with the net result of needed only two extra acres of land, for a total of 25 acres.
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But beyond the space savings, SyncPark is interested in partnering with developers who are looking to change the entire parking-dominated retail experience.
Visiting a mall today requires parking in a field spot that could be very far from the entrance to the mall or in an uninviting structured garage. Both scenarios require much walking and reliance on customer memory as to where their car is parked.
SyncPark can vastly improve this experience with multiple entry and exit points around the perimeter of the structure. In this design, a customer drops off the car wherever they wish and at the end of their shopping day, they retrieve it wherever the wish – no longer needing to “plan” their shopping around parking or running the day out by a long walk back to a foreboding parking structure. In addition, it can be designed so that customers can call their car into special areas in the mall to drop off shopping bags.
A large big box retail store is approximately 180,000 square feet or ±4 acres. If that retailer needs to provide 4 cars per 1,000 square feet of area, they need to provide 720 parking spaces, which if in a field requires over 3.7 acres of land for a total of nearly eight acres. The SyncPark advantage reduces the area dedicated to parking to 104,000 square feet, which can easily be accommodated in a partial 8’ lower level below the store.
In addition, SyncPark can be integrated with the checkout experience. As a customer reaches the checkout counter, their car is called up at the retrieval location closest to the checkout aisle.
Lobby Centered Buildings - Hotel, Casino, Medical, Office, Residential
Beyond the space savings, SyncPark is seeking to team with developers or designers intent on rethinking the lobby experience; being able to integrate parking (along with dropping off bags and passengers) with the lobby itself. Integrating parking in the front lobby of a building will provide unprecedented access to those who need extra attention, as well as added convenience for those who don’t.
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