High-Rise Condo Complex with Robotic Parking System Being Considered for Vacant Lot Near the Revel Site
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Boomerang Systems installed a 460-space robotic parking system at Park Terrace condo complex in Hudson County, similar to the one it hopes to install at a proposed condo high-rise in Atlantic City.
ATLANTIC CITY — According to an article at marketwatch.com, a Philadelphia developer purchased the one-acre lot just north of the Revel site — off the Boardwalk between Rhode Island and Metropolitan avenues, which once encompassed the since-demolished Oceanside Convalescent Center — and has plans to build a 30-story, 124-unit luxury condominium complex.
Referred to as the Metropolitan Project, plans also call for an automated parking system and 4,400 square feet of retail space. The owner/developer, Cherry Hill-based Lazocean, originally pitched plans for the land three years ago to the Atlantic City Planning Board, but the board rejected them citing certain concerns. Lazocean tweaked the plans and was in the process of re-submitting the revisions when the state-run Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) took over planning powers in the newly created Tourism District, where the one-acre plot is located.
According to published reports, the CRDA was receptive to the idea of Lazocean’s plans, which now include three levels of parking and 249 spaces that would be controlled by the RoboticValet Parking Systems — a component of the northern New Jersey-based Boomerang Systems, Inc., which designs, installs and services automated robotic parking and self-storage systems. Original plans three years ago called for an 86-unit building and 298 traditional parking spaces. According to the company’s Web site (boomerangsystems.com), similar systems were installed at developments in Sussex and Hudson counties (in northern N.J.), but this would be the first installed in southern N.J.
The decision to accept or reject Lazocean’s plans will be made during the CRDA’s next meeting on March 20. If approved, Chip Pressman, head of development for Lazocean (and the Philadelphia-based CSP Realty, Inc.) was quoted as saying that plans are to break ground in early 2013 and to open the condo complex in 2014.
