Lots of need and new ideas: the multi-storey car park is far from obsolete

fFor transport politicians in big cities who want to push cars out of the city, parking garages are not high on the list of priorities at all. The Bundesverband Parken, with 200 mostly medium-sized companies for the construction, operation, administration or renovation of parking garages, sees a need for its product right now: the 4400 parking garages with 1.3 million managed parking spaces could free up valuable space at the roadside from cars. Multi-storey car parks save an area of ​​more than 10 square kilometers or 1430 football pitches.

Even in Berlin, the number of registered cars is still growing, says Ilja Irmscher, a Berlin car park planner well known in the industry. You can’t do without it that easily, even if the political rhetoric is aimed in a completely different direction.

However, the number of planning processes for multi-storey car parks has come to a standstill, as can be heard at a small industry trade fair in Wiesbaden. But it could be a long time before this is reflected in fewer orders for car park builders. At least at the “Parken” trade fair, the largest providers in this niche are working to capacity, confident and without complaints about the economic situation.

Industry leader from Bielefeld

Managing Director Stephan Pieper reports for the industry leader Goldbeck Parking Services in Bielefeld that 70 construction projects are currently being managed. Of the more than 1,000 multi-storey car parks that have now been built, around 200 in Germany and 40 in Austria will continue to be managed by Goldbeck. Another industry giant is Huber Integral Bau from Rheinbrohl with 180 employees and a turnover that, according to the company, has multiplied in little more than 20 years from 5 to 120 million euros. Deutsche Industrie- und Parkhausbau from Windhagen speaks of a turnover of 60 million euros and 80 employees. All three are located close to the historic steel locations in the Ruhr area because their multi-storey car parks are usually built with a steel frame.

The market is now becoming more and more differentiated. Even in larger cities, parking facilities are still needed if the attractions of urban life – from shopping to restaurants to theaters – are to be preserved, says Stephan Pieper, Managing Director of Goldbeck. The offers of the city lived from the fact that they were also used by the surrounding area. “Especially medium-sized cities without large public transport, such as Münster or Osnabrück, remain dependent on drivers if they want to maintain their local retail trade.”

New multi-storey car park projects are still rare in the inner cities, because it brings more income to use the expensive land for commercial projects or living space, and because there are underground car parks under the new buildings anyway. It is more exciting for the car park builders to offer garage space for the surrounding quarters or the outskirts of town, which then frees the streets from parked cars and search traffic. “Mobility Hub” is the name under which such projects are now being propagated.

Car sharing and parcel sender

There are many ideas for this, such as the possibility of switching between different means of transport by offering not only privately parked cars but also car sharing, scooter rental, bicycle parking spaces, as well as lockers for parcel senders or the transfer station from large trucks to local parcel distributors.

What sounds good in theory does not yet pay off in practice, says Valentin Rüther, Managing Director of Huber Bau. Car-sharing companies don’t necessarily want the cars to be parked a lot, and they don’t pay a lot of rent for parcel lockers either. “But the neighborhood garage can help keep the streets in the residential area car-free,” says Thomas Benkert from Deutsche Industrie- und Parkhausbau. It doesn’t matter whether there are e-bikes or cars there. However, you then have to say goodbye to the idea that bicycles always park for free. In addition, older residents would have to be convinced that it was worth walking a few meters to the wheels.

Other challenges for car park builders are park-and-ride car parks for drivers to switch to local public transport. Apparently, wide premium parking spaces at airports always pay off. Many companies are also looking to rationalize the use of their premises by building multi-storey car parks and making better use of the space available in the ample parking lots. Finally, there are also new buildings, where previously there was only a flat supermarket and a huge ground-level parking lot. It can be efficient to rebuild the supermarket, add a few parking levels on top and possibly offices and a penthouse above it. In addition, there is a lot for specialists in the industry to do with the renovation of old and often far too narrow parking garages as well as with electronic networking, parking lot management or digital payment systems.

A small parking garage provider by the name of Willy Johannes Bau from Hemslingen in Lower Saxony has also thought about what will happen to parking garages that are no longer needed, for example next to a hospital that is now closing. Turning a multi-storey car park with decks 2.10 meters high into apartments usually fails because of the fire protection regulations. But if you had invested 8 to 15 percent more at the beginning, other uses are also conceivable later.