Why use a mechanical multi-storage garage?

• Greater space efficiency, as regular drive-in multi-level parking structures require drive ways, ramps, stair cases, elevators and other dead-space-creating features.
• Reduced risk of accidents
• Easier to use. The customer drives at ground or B1 level into an entrance chamber the shape of which he is already accustomed to from his garage at home. No irritating driving on spiral ramps, no exhaust-gas-filled air, no long and dangerous foot walks and uncomfortable elevator rides, substantially reducing the danger to become victim to a violent crime.
• Reduced cash handling or cashless payment along with automatic accounting which reduces labor costs and loss of revenues due to dishonest employees (2-3% p.a. the industry average!).
• Highly efficient underground construction.

What is the construction method?

System GRANDO® is a cylindrical structure, above and/or below ground, housing a hi-tech helical storage facility for automotive vehicles. The inner configuration consists of either poured-in-place ferro-concrete pillars and slabs, or concrete pillars supporting prefabricated floor panels. A third construction method is I-beams and steel plates. The style is determined by costs and the necessary requirements of the locale.

What is the largest vehicle that can be stored in a GRANDO® unit?

By definition GRANDO® is a storage facility for large objects from pallet size to 40ft containers. We could even build a GRANDO® for trucks and city buses if there should be a need for it.
Due to the fixed pitch of the spiral track, the height of the largest car defines the the total height of each "floor" (or rather "turn"). For technical reasons, there is no flexibility to accommodate just a few high-roof cars, except between and adjacent to the entrance and exit chambers, where vans for the physically challenged can be parked. Our standard configuration provides space for the Lincoln Town Car as the largest car, the height of the storage chambers being 5ft 3. The height can be increased, but the owner should be aware that with each 6 inches more height, he will loose, in a 240 cars unit, one full floor (24 cars), which equates to paying customers. Of course it is his own decision, if he wants to make everybody happy, but before an owner decides to increase the ceilign height, the customer profile and all options should be analyzed. We have seen plenty of underground parking garages with the sign "No Vans" at the entrance and height limits being always fully occupied.

How much does one parking space cost to construct?

This is a question we can answer with an emphatic "it depends....". Excuse the levity, but neither could a car dealer answer the global question "how much is a car?".
GRANDO® is a SYSTEM , which means a "box of bricks" with the advantage that we can exactly tailor the best unit for each of our custome's requirements.
A customer needs exactly 223 or 561 spaces? We can do it. The construction site is at a hill and the entrance should be 20 feet above the exit level? No problem - and at months end the owner can even send the electricity bill to the utility company, because the potential energy of the car weight in this case would be higher than the energy necessary to return the empty tender to the entrance chambers. Street corners or oddly shaped locations? Entrance and exits at a 120 degree angle? We can solve almost any problem.

The price for a GRANDO® unit depends on so many parameters that it is absolutely impossible to give an estimate without knowing at least some project parameters. Such as:

• Total number of parking spaces (large scale projects can expect discounts)
  
• Number of entrance and exit chambers (2, 3 or 4 each)
  
• Degree of automation (equipment for full-automatic operation is more expensive than a half-automatic unit. For e.g. valet parking).
  
• Material of facade (tinted mirror glass is more expensive than simple steel panels)
  
• Local price level for construction services (approx. 2/3rd of the total project value goes into the local business community!)
  
• Construction method (cast in place or precast concrete, steel)
  
• etc.
  

The price range is accordingly variable: between $6500 and $16,000, where the lower value represents a half automatic, low speed, large number unit which might be suitable for an airport location with many long-term parkers and low turnover, or the highest value a full-automatic, high-speed underground car park.
A "standard" unit (we have actually no standards in this respect) of 230 spaces, 50 spaces below and 180 spaces above ground level, 4 entrance and 4 exit chambers, enforced concrete construction in an area with a national average construction price range, would cost approx. $2.3 million ($10,000/space) turnkey.
Be assured, we will make you a good offer!

Isn't GRANDO® much more expensive than conventional multi-level parking structures?

In discussions we are frequently confronted with the "$5000/space average ramp price". Our market research has shown different results. Of course, if the owner does not care about appearance, quality of the construction material, safety, etc., and is located in an area with low construction costs, he may be able to get his project done at this price. On the other hand people became much more demanding on how a parking ramp should look. They do not accept ugly concrete monsters any more. Have you ever noticed, how many ramp photographs in catalogues and magazine ads are night shots ? Guess why. With all the lights on and from the right angle even the most mundane ramp looks better at night. A parking consultant with more than 35 years in business told us that "if you want something decent, you have to look at least at $10,000". Period. In university circles $12,000 is a common ball park figure , and if you really want to have something nice, like the price champion "Jerry Haaf Memorial Ramp" in Minneapolis, you end up with a final cost of $14,485 per space. And all these ramp prices are for large scale projects. With GRANDO® even a 150 space project is feasible, which in the future can be expanded if necessary.
So at an average price of $10,000 and all its additional advantages, like no stairs, elevator, aisle stripping, lighting, etc., a GRANDO® is a very good choice.

How about high energy consumption and running costs?

• While conventional ramps need ample lighting to reduce the risks of accidents and crime, a GRANDO® has only very sparse lighting inside the structure for the video cameras that are attached to the tender. No human can enter the unit during operation. The energy required for lighting in a conventional ramp is more than enough to drive the motors and peripherals of a GRANDO®.
• According to the International Parking Institute IPI "To light a parking garage, keep it clean, pay the people who work there, run the elevators, operate the cash registers and gate equipment, shovel the snow, etc. generally averages about $650 per year per space." This amount is more than sufficient for all running costs of a GRANDO® unit.
• Total surveillance by video cameras, becoming more and more common in the parking industry, especially in high risk areas, adds $400 to the costs of a ramp space, plus the increased running costs, as a security guard has to constantly scan the monitors. The small entrance and exit area of a GRANDO®, on the other hand, can easily be supervised.
• The tender is, in comparison to elevator-based parking systems, mechanically simple and sturdy, requiring very little service. Wearing parts are limited to the tires and the heavy duty rollers of the shuttle unit.
• Liability insurance can be lower as the cars are securely "locked away".

Why do you use a vehicle, the Tender, and not an elevator as other mechanical systems?

Because we do not like getting the creeps..vertical creep is an inherent problem to heavy-duty elevators.
Also the full weight of a car rests on the lifting and adjusting mechanism. Vertical and at the same time horizontal alignment of a 1.5 ton load is technically not an easy task. Accordingly heavy-duty elevators are expensive and have to be maintained frequently.
Compare yourself: Climb to the attic of your house and pull 200 pounds of weight, suspended by a rope up to the window trying to keep it within an inch of height tolerance. Now wipe off your sweat and lean a board in a 45 degree angle against the wall. Put the 200 pounds on a small cart and pull it up the slope. Still pretty heavy? Yes, but a lot easier to pull and to adjust already. Now imagine an angle of only 6 degrees as in a GRANDO® (we doubt that you will find a board long enough). Wow, this would be a piece of cake!
Wheels and slope are still the best means to transport heavy loads up - and that is the reason, why we have developed the tender.

How long does it take to enter and exit a GRANDO® unit?

Entering is like a charm... you drive into the entrance chamber on ground level like your garage at home, take a smart card from a ticket dispenser and leave. Compare that with driving up 3-4 levels, walking back through exhaust filled aisles, dodging other cars, waiting for the elevator, etc.
When you return, it takes naturally a bit longer, as the unit has to bring your car to the exit chamber. After you have paid your fee, it takes 80 seconds on average (2.5 minutes max. when traffic is high) until your car is in the exit chamber. In 80 seconds you would not have even reached your car yet in a conventional multi-level parking facility.
By the way, "90 seconds retrieval time" seems to be a common ball park figure that you can read in catalogues of mechanical parking systems, but ask yourself what happens if 3 cars arrive at the same time, while 4 people want to retrieve their pack of steel. I have been waiting 8 minutes to enter a mechanical car park unit in Yokohama, of a type that the maker offers in his catalog with "less than 1 minute retrieval time", because one car wanted to leave and two others to enter. This will not happen in a well planned GRANDO®: multiple entrance chambers swallow the incoming traffic in an instant, and the tender can transport four cars at a time to multiple exit chambers - all independent from each other. So not even Granny Smith, a bit slow in loading her groceries in her trunk, will restrict the traffic flow in a GRANDO®.

How can GRANDO® handle high volumes of incoming or outgoing traffic, i.e. at a stadium, theater, etc.?

GRANDO® is exceptionally well equipped for certain peaks of arriving and departing traffic: multiple entrance and exit chambers, which can be used by the next cars immediately after the tender has pulled a car out of an entrance chamber. This is a transportation facility for 4 cars at the same time, independante of all motions from each other, etc. Still, any kind of system has its limits. We cannot make everybody happy and would not recommend a GRANDO® for a stadium location as in this case usage is too lopsided. Used only once or twice a week and with extreme peak loads this is not a feasible application for any mechanical or automated system. It takes approximately 90 minutes to dispatch all cars from a GRANDO® unit. So if 200 people arrive at the same time, of course, we have a bottleneck (as does even a conventional ramp). On the other hand could GRANDO®, for example, be used as VIP parking or valet parking at stadiums?
Other mechanical storage facilites are basically designed for a steady throughput all day long. GRANDO®, on the other hand, has certain technical features and options to buffer peaks, like the morning and evening rush.

Multiple-purpose chambers can handle up heavy incoming traffic in the morning, while serve as a buffer for the outgoing traffic of an evening rush, for example in company parking. Also during the morning rush hour the unit will stack the "early birds" (while traffic is still low) and late-comers (when the peak is over) in locations farther away from the entrance chambers and stack cars in the shortest possible distance during the peak. Another advantage is that in this case the tender can deposit up to four cars at the same time in 90 degree increments, shortening the total access time and waiting time.
In any case we have to analyse the specifics of the location and the feasibility to implement a GRANDO® in advance.

Why is GRANDO® round?

• In the construction industry, the volume of a building is an important parameter for its construction costs, especially in underground construction. Though the shape which could have the greatest usable internal storage area for its external surface area would be the sphere, this concept is impracticable for buildings, namely parking structures. The next most efficient shape is the cylinder, and this deemed to be an effective compromise between the sphere and the current more expensive conventional cube formats already in use at the moment.
  
• The cylindrical shape enables us to make use of a simple and sturdy electric vehicle instead of sensitive and costly elevators, extant in cube shaped buildings

Are the unit and mechanics liable to failure?

No! The Tender vehicle is simple and robust and easier to maintain. GRANDO® has double and even triple back-up systems for guaranteed continuous operation.

What are the major advantages?

• Car and driver are "as secure as in a bank safe". The driver only moves in a well lit, populated and easy to control area, reducing the risks of becoming the victim of a violent crime.
• No person can enter the storage area. Everything is controlled by sensors and video cameras. Car and parts theft, doors slammed into other cars, cars backing into one another, all become history with the GRANDO®.
• Reduced risk of accidents, as the cars in the access area move only very slowly, while on ramp and parking lot aisles drivers often accelerate to a substantial speed. As pedestrians and cars have to occupy the same traffic area, you can see the GRANDO® is substantially safer.
• GRANDO® does not require a learning process, drivers enter and leave the unit like their own garages or a car wash.
• Approximately half the ground area of conventional parking units would be required, reducing site costs considerably.
• The round shape offers architects the opportunity to create beautiful buildings and facade shapes.
• As the GRANDO® parking units are built using very few different cast-in-place, pre-cast or ready-made steel parts, less construction time is needed, thus reducing building costs and capital outlay even further.
• The electric motors of the automatic transportation vehicle (no elevator!) move the cars up as required. There is no noise, and no exhaust gases emitted from either the unit or the cars; an environmentally acceptable feature. The cars move downwards utilizing gravitational force generated by the sloping angled track. Energy consumption in total therefore, is low.
• The unique service thus provided is safe, quick, simple, efficient, and convenient - subsequently the customers will be happy return again and again. The unit, generating high returns with low running costs is featured, producing a greater yield. The advantages are clearly measurable.

System GRANDO® is available for licensing or joint ventures in other parts of the world (excluding Europe, USA, Korea). If you are interested, contact us.
Last modified on July 2004
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