New York City’s robotic parking system will cost luxury residents $300,000 per space

Hidden deep underground in New York City’s most luxurious apartments is an exclusive world of futuristic parking spaces where luxury cars are parked and reclaimed by a robotic parking system.

A high-tech spot is a rare amenity in the Big Apple. If you want your car in one of these VIP spaces, you should be prepared to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

The spot is only accessible to residents of buildings where apartments set up millions of dollars. If you want your car to live there too, you’ll need an additional $300,000 to $595,000 to reserve valuable space in your private garage.

CNBC discovered two buildings in Manhattan offering sales inside the so-called Robo Parking Garage.

The first, located at 121 East 22nd Street near Gramercy Park in New York City, is a 140-unit condominium development. Toll Brothers Fully equipped with 24 automatic parking lots.

Earlier this month, Lori Alf, a full-time Florida resident, got one of the rare parking spaces for $300,000 when she bought the building’s most expensive unit.

She told CNBC that the $9.45 million package deal is a gift to her children who are spending more time in New York.

Now, when Alf and her kids want to park the family’s Porsche Cayenne in the condo’s garage, they pull up at a kiosk, from which waves of tiny radio-frequency ID tags whistle off to allow human access. Unlock access to no underground car hideouts.

Pressing the button on the kiosk brings the empty metal pallet downstairs to life. It slides across the track into a powerful lift, sending an empty pallet towards the ground to meet Alf, who can carefully place the car on it.

Before the wheels are removed, a series of cameras scan the system’s entrance to ensure that the car’s trunk and doors are all closed, and that there are no objects or people behind it that could interfere with the automation. To do.

When the scanner says “all clear,” the pallet with the car on it disappears to the floor, pausing as it descends into the basement, rotating the car 180 degrees and inserting it into one of the empty spaces. .

The system can lift and shuffle 20 cars in 4 rows and 2 levels.

Collecting a car is a lot like choosing items from a giant vending machine. After the resident swipes the RFID tag again, the system delivers the car in about 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

One of Alf’s advantages is that you don’t have to reverse your car to get out of the building.

“Cars are turned by robots,” she told CNBC. “Who doesn’t live for a robot to point you in the right direction in New York?”

Pedro Fernandez, a local sales representative for Kraus Parking, which sold the German-made parking system to the building’s developer, told CNBC that it’s the most automated garage they’ve ever installed in Manhattan.

The company’s top-of-the-line systems typically cost between $50,000 and $70,000 per installation. According to Fernandez, the developer has invested more than $1 million in his Parking Intelligent infrastructure. This is because vehicle placement and space maximization are very efficient.

“There was no other way to park 24 cars,” Fernandez said of the garage space below 121 East 22nd Street.

Automated parking systems don’t require ramps or lanes found in most traditional garages, so they can unlock more space per square foot, he said.

“It may sound crazy, but $300,000 for a residential parking lot is considered a reasonable price in New York City,” said Senada Adzem, Douglas Elliman’s real estate broker in Florida. I was.

Adzem told CNBC that a spot of the system, which includes charging plugs for electric vehicles, costs $350,000. There is also a $150 monthly maintenance fee for all parking lots, electrified or not.

“The overall shortage of parking spaces in the city is an ongoing problem with no end in sight and will only escalate such pricing,” said Adzem.

She believes that a shortage of supply can turn a seemingly extravagant expense into money-making for owners, who can eventually resell their places and make a profit.

Once home to pop star Ariana Grande, the building is now home to rock musician Sting and his film producer wife Trudy Styler.

Parking at 520 West 28th Street starts at $450,000.

Luxurious mansions designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid and developed by affiliates include: 4,500 sq ft penthouse It’s currently on the market for $16.5 million. And a parking space in the building’s garage could cost him $595,000 more per vehicle, according to Corcoran’s listing agent Julie Pham.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Pham said of the unique installation.

Residents can use the app to communicate with a so-called “secure parking portal” and remotely initiate an automated collection process to ensure their car is ready to move.

Pham declined to disclose the identities of past or current clients, but said automated parking was a big draw for one high-profile resident who had a security team inspect the parking lot before moving in. CNBC told to

An unnamed celebrity representative agreed to the deal, partly because the star could walk in and out of the garage in complete privacy.

“They liked the idea of ​​not having to deal with attendants or attendants, or having anyone come right behind you,” she said.

Residents who wanted to minimize their exposure to Covid-19 during the pandemic also liked being able to drop off and pick up their cars without handing over their keys to an attendant, the broker said. says.

Automated spots are expensive, but nowhere near the most expensive spots in NYC.

In recent years, some condo developers have asked for basic concrete and yellow-striped parking lots in the $1 million range, according to Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a firm that specializes in real estate appraisals and consulting. . . Still, the nine-figure asking price spot is unlikely to have attracted any real buyers, he said.

“We found no evidence of an actual closure,” he told CNBC.

Miller, who analyzed public records at CNBC’s request, said last year one of the most expensive parking lots in town was at 220 Central Park South, where a parking space sold for a whopping $750,000. said. Based on public records, it appears to be connected to apartments in a building that sold for $16 million, Miller said.

“Most sales are embedded in unit sales, which makes them very difficult to track,” Miller told CNBC.

And tracking spot sales with new automated systems is even more difficult. That’s because in many cases, brokers say, spots are actually licensed to the buyer and not transferred or sold like most real estate.

“I think $300,000 to $400,000 is the sweet spot for new developments,” Miller said of current rates for a single parking lot in New York City.