Q. How does the Green Park system operate and is it safe?

A. Green Park uses a tried and tested parking solution that has been successfully used in cities in Europe and Asia for 15 years.  Green Park is a fully-automated parking facility, which means that no one drives or touches your car but you.  It’s as simple as 1-2-3:

1) Drive into the receiving room. 

2) Get out of your vehicle and lock your doors.

3) Exit the receiving room.

The fully-automated system does the rest by moving your vehicle to another area where your vehicle stays until you return and are ready to leave.  To see for yourself how simple and safe it is, watch the video.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q What if I have a question.  Is there someone there to help me?

A. Absolutely.  We have an attendant at the site 24/7 to assist you.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. When will it open?

A. The nation’s first Green Park facility will open in Spring 2013 in Chicago’s Bucktown community.  Many others are planned in other urban areas throughout Chicago.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. What is the goal of Green Park Eco Garage?

A. Our immediate goal is to help eliminate parking issues and make parking a pleasant experience for the nearly 100,000 residents and businesses in Wicker Park / Bucktown – one of Chicago’s most densely populated areas for cars. The country’s first Green Park Eco Garage is scheduled to open in Early Spring 2013.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. Where will other facilities be located?

A. In addition to Bucktown, other viable Chicago communities slated for Green Park facilities include Lakeview, Gold Coast/Rush Street, Greek Town, Andersonville, Old Town, Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, Lincoln Park, Loop, and Hyde Park, among others.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. How “green” is Green Park?

A. Green Park Eco Garage received the second-highest ranking from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), making it the only Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Level registered, fully-automatic parking garage in the nation. USGBC ranking is as follows: 26-32 points – Certified; 33-38 points – Silver; 39-51 points – Gold; and 52-69 points – Platinum.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. What benefits are there for investors?

A. There are numerous benefits to the Green Park concept for investors, developers and suppliers.  Here are some of the most important ones:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No Up and Down Drive Ramps and Spacing for Car Entry / Exit

Drive ramps, turnaround aisles, queuing lanes and space between parked cars are a thing of the past with Green Park. Such standard, non-revenue producing features of conventional garages add to costs of construction, implementation and maintenance, which generally are absorbed as the cost of doing business. None of these features and costs is incurred with automatic parking.

Eliminate Expensive Passenger Elevators and Lobbies

One expensive component of a conventional garage is the need for multiple passenger elevators to provide access and egress for customers to parking levels to retrieve their vehicles. With Green Park, there is no need for elevators, maintenance contracts and repairs.

Eliminate Customer Stairways and Landings for Access and Egress

Other expensive parts of conventional garage construction are customer stairways and landings. Consumers do not have access to parking levels in Green Park garages. We install maintenance, service, and emergency stairways which cost less than consumer versions.

No Security Devices and Customer Emergency Call Stations

Customers only have access to the first floor receiving room, eliminating the need for redundant security and emergency equipment on multiple floors which further reduces hardware and systems costs. 

No Lighting and Cooling Electricity Costs

Certified LEED lighting electrical savings for the Green Park garage is 98%.  Electrical savings for space cooling is 100%. Significant electric savings occurs because the lighting is used once a month on parking levels for inspection and maintenance. By comparison, lighting in a conventional garage is often used 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Cooling and associated equipment are not used in Green Park garages. Receiving rooms are lighted, but not heated. These savings reduce operating, equipment and construction costs.

No Car Damage, Customer Crime and Assaults

There is no public access to parking levels. Service stairs to parking levels are guarded by locks and intrusion alarms. Customers are only allowed in lit and attended receiving rooms. No one drives the car once the customer leaves the receiving room. This results in no car damage or theft insurance claims.         

Rapid, 7-Year Straight Line Depreciation

Green Park is classified as a warehouse inventory system machine. This allows straight line 7-year depreciation for eligible investors, which is more favorable and much shorter than brick and mortar depreciation over 39 years for conventional garages. This recaptures tax advantages faster and flows to your bottom line.

Lower Maintenance Cost and Reduced Business Revenue Loss

Conventional concrete parking garages require resurfacing after 5 to 7 years to repair weather damage from being open to the cold and sun. Resurfacing requires adding new rebar in addition to new concrete. That process effectively closes parking for all levels being resurfaced and causes lost income. Green Park does not have ramps and concrete flooring for parking cars. The structure is closed to weather elements and the parking system is made of coated, rust-resistant steel eliminating the need for resurfacing.  Automatic parking averages 99% operation uptime.

Superior Location and Operating Flexibility

Green Park can be located in landmark structures without altering the exterior façade.  These systems operate in stand-alone parking and mixed use sites. Green Park can be built above grade, below grade, or a mix of these positions. Green Park also retrofits into existing conventional garages to double or triple capacity and reduce headcount costs. The systems operate as transient, valet or monthly parking sites or a mix of all three modes. This flexibility allows the developer to place these systems into many varied environments and maintain continuity and compatibility of the systems deployed. All of these factors represent savings in programming, deployment, installation and a simplified supply chain for projects. They also expand business opportunities for Green Park systems.

Location Flexibility

Green Park garage sites can be constructed on single lots with dimensions as small as 18’ x 100’, with capacity for over 100 cars. This is intelligent land use and maximizes land cost ROI. This location flexibility and small land footprint addresses land locked site development. Green Park systems can be installed in mixed-use building designs. Mixed-use designs include retail, commercial, medical office and business office spaces, or a mix of all three. This flexibility addresses not only parking demand, it solves under served retail and commercial services communities, too. 

One of many outstanding features of Green Park Garage is the ability to relocate the parking system to a new location.  A new foundation, electrical, plumbing and cladding shell would be required at the new location. Recently in Istanbul, Turkey, a 612-car system was relocated because the existing site became more valuable for retail and commercial development. This type of relocation would be impossible for a conventional parking garage.