New Generation Robotic AGV Technology Provides Automated Parking for Brickell House in Miami

Brickell House is a 46-story condominium building located in Brickell Miami. The building was 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. Brickell House is a certified-green construction building with 374 units and a range of amenities including a rooftop pool and sundeck; a private owner’s lounge with an event bar and catering kitchen, a theater; a 50-foot lap pool with poolside cabanas; a fitness center; conference rooms; a spa with sauna and steam room; and two street-level restaurants.

Located in Miami’s Financial District, Brickell House is well positioned in one of Miami’s most popular neighborhoods, minutes away from shops, restaurants and entertainment, a 15-minute drive from South Beach and a 30-minute drive from Miami International Airport.

Automated Robotic Parking System

Brickell House was originally designed with a 420-space automated parking system on 13 floors. The building was built in 2014 and turned over in September 2015 by a provider who failed to deliver a successful parking system. In November 2015, the parking system was closed due to major issues with the system. Since then, the building has made alternative plans for resident and visitor parking until PARKPLUS’s recent award to retrofit new technology and deliver a working system.

Brickell House Parking Garage

A view of the existing parking vault structure at Brickell House.

Automated Parking System Replacement

Having won the previous parking systems lawsuit, the Brickell House Condominium Association is able to cover the costs of replacing the automated parking system in the short term, preventative maintenance for 15 years, and future technology advances. Brickell House spent time carefully looking for a solution, with the help of a 3rd party consultant, Kingfisher Technical Solutions (KTS).

KTS is an independent consultancy with extensive expertise in all aspects of Automated Parking Systems and project management, Managing Director Colin Barksby has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and has worked on automated robotic parking projects all over the world. KTS was appointed by Brickell House to manage a competitive tender for the design, installation and ongoing maintenance of a replacement automated parking system. The tender focused on both commercial and technical key deliverables, and on the best overall parking solution for the building.

Yaidyt Hernandez of Brickell House Condominium Association stated, “We looked at experience in the market, the type of technology and the capacity offering. We wanted no structural changes, with similar capacity to the original garage and reasonable long-term costs.’

PARKPLUS High Density Parking Systems

PARKPLUS has over 50 years’ experience in parking automation, with the most completed projects, and the largest product range, in the United States; including automated robotic parking solutions, self-park stacking, and multi-level manually operated stacked parking systems. The PARKPLUS Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) parking system is able to meet the requirements of the project without structural changes, and using the existing system’s vehicle lifts, with some modifications.

PARKPLUS AGV Automated Parking System

The PARKPLUS AGV transporting a vehicle on a parking tray to the vehicle lift.

 

“We are very excited to be working with PARKPLUS. Working with them has been great, they have been accommodating and have the building’s best interests in mind. We are so excited to give the residents parking and be the building we are meant to be,” said Yaidyt of Brickell House.

Just 30 minutes from Brickell House, the PARKPLUS office is a 15,000 sq. ft. facility in Dania Beach. The office employs a full-service team and has installed dozens of projects in the region, including Muse Rack & Rail and Paramount AGV, both global flagship projects for automated parking systems.

Project Schedule

The project is estimated to take up to 77 weeks once permits and approval from the city are in place. The Automated Parking System will provide 411 parking places with 80 spaces for electric vehicle charges. As the parking 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.

Removing an existing APS and installing a new one in an occupied building presents challenges that are different from a new-build. KTS, Brickell House and PARKPLUS have placed a lot of emphasis on logistics planning to maintain a minimum level of disruption to the residents, while ensuring an efficient schedule to return the parking asset to them. KTS will continue to work with Brickell House and PARKPLUS through the lifespan of the project, managing the off-site testing, on-site commissioning, and site acceptance testing and inspection.

PARKPLUS Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

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. This project will include new generation PARKPLUS AGVs, the only parking AGVs in the world with inductive charging.

AGV Automated Parking
The PARKPLUS manufacturing facility produces the PARKPLUS AGV Automated Parking system. Designed in-house by professional engineers, the PARKPLUS AGV has multiple global patents. The unique design has revolutionized high-density vehicle storage & retrieval systems, transformed the parking experience and provided efficient, sustainable and cost-effective parking solutions for many projects in the US.

The Brickell House parking system will have an integrated smartphone app to manage the storage and retrieval of vehicles, with ‘position in queue’ and ‘vehicle ready’ push notifications to users. Residents will be able to issue visitor passes through the app and electric-vehicle integration will enable the managing of electric-vehicle charging. As autonomous vehicle technology continues to advance, the PARKPLUS system is enabled for future autonomous vehicle integration.

PARKPLUS Automated Robotic Parking Electric Vehicle

EV Charging in parking garages is rapidly becoming the new standard across the nation with code adoptions that mandate new and evolving EV provision requirements. PARKPLUS is assisting developers across the United States meet these and other electric vehicle requirements.

 

Paul Bates, Group President of PARKPLUS said, “we are very excited about the project, proud to be involved and to resolve an industry problem. It means a lot to us to be able to put this project right. The failure of the original Brickell House parking system hurt the APS industry, turning this project around will restore faith and confidence in AGVs and Automated Parking Systems in general. PARKPLUS has a phenomenal solution that will show the world that the AGV is a viable parking solution with tremendous versatility, allowing us to retrofit with minimal changes to the existing garage.”

PARKPLUS continues to lead the Automated Parking System industry, especially in AGVs. Brickell House will be receiving the latest technology in the industry, including inductive charging for AGVs, electric-vehicle integration, and autonomous vehicle readiness.”

Automated Robotic Parking Systems are here to stay and, despite having already completed many automated projects, we believe this is just the beginning of mainstream adoption in the United States. PARKPLUS has successfully secured multiple international partners for resale and support of Automated Parking Systems worldwide, while continuing to grow our capabilities and drive technology and innovation.”

 

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.