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| Ybor City |
| Tampa, Florida |
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| Problem: |
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- Increase parking availability for mixed use application.
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- Satisfy university campus and commercial parking needs for transient and contract parking partons.
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- Minimize maintenance and optimize service.
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- Improve customer/visitor satisfaction.
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| Solution: |
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| Amano Cincinnati, Inc. AGP Series Parking Systems |
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| Ybor City is Tampa, Florida's National Historic Landmark District where antique
hunting and education rule the day and lively entertainment rules the night.
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| Ten years ago, the district was decaying until the Chamber of Commerce recognized
its historic value and instituted its renovation. So popular was the restored area, it became known as the
"Bourbon Street" of Tampa. Married to that popularity was a severe lack of parking. On any given Friday or
Saturday night, 10,000 - 15,000 people fill the area until about 3:00 AM and, until 1999, only one city parking
facility and a few small surface lots were available for parking.
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| In 1998, the City of Tampa, Department of Public Works, Parking Division began a study of
long and short range parking needs for Ybor City. They knew surface lots were disappearing quickly as development of
the area progressed, not only straining commercial parking needs, but also parking for students attending the Ybor City
Campus of Hillsborough Community College (HCC), situated in the heart of the district. Tampa had been allowing the
college to use some of its now disappearing surface lots.
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| Rick Benyo, operations superintendent for Tampa's Parking Division, noted that the parking
space deficit would have to be made up, probably with a multilevel parking facility that would cost in the area of $18
million. Tampa couldn't fund it all.
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| The answer came by the way of, $6 million in state funding to HCC. The college and the state
agreed those monies could be applied towards building a joint use parking facility.
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| Carlos Aguiar, applications systems analyst for the Parking Division, observed that the college
needed about 800 spaces during the daytime. Ybor City needed space for evenings and weekends to absorb tourists. Moreover,
HCC happened to have property in the vicinity where previous studies had shown that a new parking facility would best serve
the community.
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| If the two entities could get together - the college donating it's property for parking use
(valued at approximately $3 million dollars), they could combine the $6 million grant and the property with another $9 million
that the City of Tampa would be able to contribute, they could design and build a joint use multilevel garage to accommodate
1240 vehicles.
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| The plan took root.
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| Called the Fernando Noriega, Jr. Palm Avenue Garage (named after the Mayor of Tampa's tireless
coordinator for development and highly instrumental in the development of Ybor City), the multilevel structure is designed
to fit the architecture of the area.
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| The facility is divided into north and south modules: Palm Avenue defines it northern border,
8th Avenue to the south with two reversible exit lanes, 13th Street to the east with three exit lanes, and Nuccio Parkway to
the west. The north accommodates 552 spaces; 688 in the south side. The two modules are connected at the third and fourth levels
over 9th Avenue with three entrance lanes in the north module, and two entrance and two exit lanes in the south module.
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| The parking solution uses Amano-McGann systems installed and serviced by Access Control Technologies
(ACT), Orlando, FL. The plan ACT recommended and installed is comprised of 16 Amano Cincinnati AGP-1700 barrier gates (two with
battery backup at the exit lanes), nine AGP-5210 fee computers with fee indicators, validators and lock boxes, seven ETP-22 ticket
dispensers, McGann revenue and facilities management software, and twelve Mag 280 card readers with buffering capability.
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| All available space between transient and contract (monthly) parkers is manually controlled by ropes
separating the two sections. The north module and part of the south module is reserved for HCC students during the day. During
the evening, reserved spaces drop to 200.
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| The City controls the amount of spaces available at designated times. Lanes 9, 10 and 11 are set
to "free entry," automatically opening to the presence of a vehicle. Students purchase and display hang tags for access
authorization to the north module.
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| The remaining 440 spaces in the south module are designated for transient parkers and three additional
groups of monthly parkers. Entrance for them is restricted to lanes 3 and 4 off of 8th Avenue, and lanes 5 and 6 off of 9th Avenue.
Access for all parkers is round the clock seven days a week.
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| HCC gets about 800 spaces, while Ybor City uses the remaining 440 for daytime shoppers and visitors.
During evenings and weekends belong the entire facility is used by visitors and tourists. Both the university and the City of
Tampa are pleased with the Amano-McGann systems, and Access Controls Technology for their attention to detail and service.
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| As the area develops, the popularity of the historic district grows, and surface lots become scarce,
it is likely the city will build new parking structures like the Palm Avenue Garage.
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| SPECIFICATIONS |
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