As the retrofit installation of the world’s tallest and largest AGV Automated Parking System progresses at Brickell House in Miami, PARKPLUS has successfully completed significant project milestones.

Well positioned in the heart of Miami’s Financial District, Brickell House is a certified-green 46-story condominium building, developed by Newgard Development Group and designed by award-winning architecture firm Sieger Suarez Architects. Common area spaces were designed by world-renowned architecture firm Yabu Pushelberg. Located in one of Miami’s most popular neighborhoods, Brickell House is close to shops, restaurants, entertainment, a 15-minute drive from South Beach, and a 30-minute drive from Miami International Airport.

Brickell House was originally designed with a 420-space automated parking system on 13 floors. The parking system was closed a month after opening due to major issues with the system. Since then, the building has made alternative plans for resident and visitor parking until PARKPLUS’s award to retrofit new technology and deliver a working system. The PARKPLUS Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) parking system was able to meet the requirements of the project without structural changes, and using the existing system’s vehicle lifts, with some modifications.

American Manufacturing

In 2021, PARKPLUS completed production of a record number of 29 AGVs within six months at the headquarters and manufacturing facility in Fairview, New Jersey. Key milestones were met by building faster than ever before. This was enabled by a multi-skilled, integrated production team and process, and important vendor relationships. The robotic welder was programmed for optimum production output of the AGV chassis and other components. The 29 AGVs were delivered to site and commissioned by PARKPLUS in record time.

PARKPLUS engineers and programmers worked with one of America’s oldest and most respected welding firms to program the PARKPLUS robotic welder for optimum throughput.

PARKPLUS AGV Manufacturing Team

A multi-skilled Engineering and Manufacturing team ensured PARKPLUS was able to meet project schedule deadlines and produce a record number of AGVs within a tight timeframe.

 

Project Challenges

The project has presented some challenges. The 13-floor vehicle lifts or VRCs (Vertical Reciprocating Conveyors) had to be structurally redesigned and essentially rebuilt to be fit for purpose. Additionally, each of the 13 floor surfaces were ground down to the correct gradient and smoothness, and then sealed, to provide an optimum surface for the AGVS to travel on.

Ground and finished floors with navigation barcodes at Brickell House.

 

PARKPLUS is now equipping the garages’ five ground-floor loading bays. The loading bays are dedicated areas where drivers leave and retrieve their vehicles. Equipped with a sophisticated array of technology, the loading bay uses guidance displays, sensors for vehicle size and positioning, and motion detectors and lasers ensure fast, safe drop-off and pickup of vehicles. Cars are parked on trays and transferred to a VRC for storage on one of the 13 levels.

New Generation Automated Parking

The Automated Parking System will provide 411 parking places with 80 spaces for electric vehicle chargers. Initially when the system is introduced to residents and users, there will be valet parking with personnel ready to assist in the parking and loading areas. This will eventually transition into self-parking. The Brickell House garage will include new generation PARKPLUS AGVs, the only parking AGVs in the world with inductive charging.

 

The PARKPLUS AGV Automated Parking system consists of free-roaming, self-charging, omni-directional robots using traffic management software, markers, vision systems and lasers for self-guidance to manage the automated storage and retrieval of vehicles on trays. The AGV provides maximum parking efficiency, with flexible floorplan configuration and intelligent traffic management software. The AGV system is EV-compatible and remote-monitored 24/7.

Paul Bates, Group President of PARKPLUS said “Thanks to the flexible AGV technology, we are able to achieve a quick installation and commissioning that is not dependent on complex structures. The AGV continues to evolve and prove itself as the solution for large scale automated parking systems, retrofits and adaptive reuse projects.”

PARKPLUS is the leading provider of Automated and Mechanical Stacked Parking Systems. Established in Queens, New York in 1969, PARKPLUS designs, manufactures, installs & services multi-level mechanical parking lift car stackers and automated robotic parking garages throughout the United States.