To reprise a story we’ve been following here for a couple of years but I had never actually seen the garages. I took a tour and frankly they are beautiful — low profile, well lit, convenient to the Stadium. What more could one want — the answer is, of course, cars parked in them. The garages are now closed. There is no baseball until the spring.
The question many are asking is why were they built in the first place. There is plenty of existing parking to support Yankee Stadium. There are three large garages within a five minute walk of the ball park (not counting the new ones.) There is also a ton of surface parking that is owned by the Yankees, nearby. How could anyone in the parking business, knowing the area, have recommended that the garages be built. (The garages are at about 40% capacity during Yankee Games.)
As of now, the ownership is in the process of defaulting on the bonds ($240mm) and that’s with $200mm in subsidies that the company has received to help with operating expenses.
There are other issues, too. The nearby parking goes for about $20 a day. The Yankee Garages sell their parking for $45. Who wouldn’t want to save $20 and walk a couple of blocks? Prices have been going steadily up in the garages, they have been static in the rest of the lots.
Here, you can see one of the garages in the background — the athletic field in the foreground is where the original Yankee Stadium sat before the new ball park was built.
One wag commented that if they set the prices at $100,000 per day, they would only have to park 1 or 2 cars and they could meet their bonding requirements. Of course supply and demand doesn’t work like that.
The day I visited they were closed. I walked around and checked things out. They seem like well designed, nice looking facilities. Just no one parks there.
What could feed the garages during the off season — there are a number of court building just down the Grand Concourse. Tons of lawyers, judges, court employees, jurors, and the like. Could someone cut a deal with them and perhaps sells some monthlies. If they sold space at a discount, surely people would come by and park. But then… Maybe the same people who decided to build the garages are running them.
One Response
When you charge so much that not even New Yorkers will pay it, you need to look at your business model.