The mechanical and automated parking systems industry in the United States has been flourishing for fifty years. While many newcomers to the industry believe that this is new, it has been a small but steadily growing industry for decades. The application of various lift technologies to commercial parking in urban centers has been regularly utilized to both increase parking capacity as well as increase parking revenue. Harding Steel has been at the forefront of this technology since 1968.
Traditionally mechanical parking has utilized hydraulic lift systems that “stack” cars on top of one another. At the very basic concept this is often referred to as a “double stacker” – which we refer to as the SUV Lift. The hydraulic lift systems range from double, triple, and up to four levels of parking on a single traditional parking space dimension. The history of parking would tell us the market for these lift systems have been outdoor stand-alone parking lots in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. But in recent years, the demand of these systems has spread across the country, with Harding Steel being the leader in a majority of the metro markets.
Mechanical parking technologies have a long history of exclusivity with commercial parking facilities not tied to mixed use or multifamily properties. These facilities are valet attended and usually operated on a lease basis from the property owner allowing the owner to double, triple, or quadruple revenue on a single stall. As these lots have been sold or repurposed for real estate development, the industry has seen a shift of both application for traditional parking systems as well as a demand for newer technology like mechanical stacking solutions.
The demand for mechanical parking systems has found the way inside of commercial real estate development with either a mixed use or residential component. Valet operation is still very common across the country as both an luxury amenity and a design intent for the larger developments. Larger scale properties with a mixed-use program can often support the cost of valet operations, allowing them to utilize less expensive lifts over other alternatives.
The true automated and mechanical car parking industry shift started to occur in the early 2000’s with the increase of smaller urban infill real estate projects. This shift created a demand for what is known as self-park or “independent parking.” It was at this time Harding Steel rolled out the first semi-automated parking systems in the United States called CARMATRIX. CARMATRIX allowed residents to be assigned a stall and through computer controls shuffle cars around inside of the “puzzle” to access them at grade. This removed the need for a valet in these smaller projects, unlocked development potential, and saved developers both money and time on bring projects out of the ground.
As the earliest adopters in the US for this technology, Harding Steel has seen the self-park industry grow to pit-based parking (subterranean parking) all the way through fully automated parking. Harding Steel provides solutions through every parking system category from simple parking stackers all the way through fully automated parking solutions. We install and service our equipment coast to coast.
Please contact Harding Steel to review any project or development you are working on. We are happy to work with you to create the solution that fits best into your development.