Auto Parkit to Announce Plans for Warren Project

WARREN, Ohio – A press event this morning in Warren is expected to bring the CEO of Auto ParkIt back to his hometown to announce his plans to transform 500,000 square feet of former Packard manufacturing space into a warehouse and assembly operation for this automated parking systems.

Christopher Alan founded Auto ParkIt LLC, which is based in Los Angeles.

The office of Mayor Doug Franklin announced last week that a news conference would be held today to reveal a California company’s “plans to make a multi-million dollar investment in Warren.”

Press accounts have since identified Alan’s Auto Parkit and the prospect of 300 jobs.

The company builds automated parking centers that operate “sort of like an elaborate dry cleaning carousel,” states a 2013 story in American Builders Quarterly posted at Auto Parkit’s website. The automation, drive technology and design used in the automatic parking system was developed by Auto ParkIt’s partners: Omron Corp., Design Systems Inc. and SEW Eurodrive.

According to the company’s website, the Auto ParkIt system can accommodate roughly three floors for every two floors of a traditional garage. Vehicles are mechanically stored with precision control, and the narrower stalls allow twice as many cars in the same space, or the same number in half the space. Time spent finding an empty parking space is eliminated, and the average vehicle retrieval time is 45 to 120 seconds.

Representatives of the economic team working with the company are expected to attend Tuesday’s event. They include city officials as well as representatives of Team NEO/JobsOhio, Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp., Western Reserve Port Authority Trumbull County Planning Commission and Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber.

Pictured: Posted on the company’s website is this picture of a car parked in one of the company’s systems.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.