Unitronics Systems Inc automated parking garage

Hoboken recently added 373 spaces to its parking stock, with an automated garage that's part of a mixed use development with 212 apartments at the northern end of town. Drivers leave their cars in a bay, lock them up and walk away, while automated elevators carry them to available spaces, off-load them, and go back for more, according to Unitronics Systems in Fort Lee.

( (PR News Photo/Unitronics Systems))

HOBOKEN -- Hoboken added 373 spaces to its parking stock, with an automated garage that's part of a new mixed-used development at the north end of town, where spaces will be available to residents and non-residents alike.



The garage is part of the new Park and Garden development, a 12-story, 212-unit project on Garden Street, just north of 14th Street and east of Park Avenue. Spaces in the garage cost $290 a month for residents and $300 a month for non-residents.



Parking spaces should be available to non-residents within a matter of weeks, said Roger McFarlane, the garage's operations manager.

The garage, known as an automated vehicle storage and retrieval system, or "AVSRS," allows users to drive into a entry bay, lock the car and walk away, according to Unitronics Systems, the Fort Lee firm that designed it.



The car is then automatically lifted and deposited in one of the 373 parking spaces, without the need for an attendant to drive or even enter the car, according to Unitronics, which produced a video explaining the process. Rather, the car is guided along by a system that picks it up from under its tires, spins it around on a turntable, and moves it into a space.

To retrieve their car, the driver swipes his pass and the system works in reverse to bring it back down, when the driver unlocks it, gets in a drives away. The driver never hands over the keys.



It's not the first automated garage in Hoboken, or even the first by Unitronics. The 27-year-old company opened what was said to be the first automated parking deck in the New York metropolitan area in 2009, also on Garden Street, five blocks south of the new one, a facilitate that was initially plagued by glitches.

The system saves garage space as well, according to Unitronics, by eliminating the need for ramps used to drive cars into spaces in conventional garages.



The new mixed-used development, known as 1415 Park Ave., is on the site of a former parking garage.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.