Get Parkd for a pop-up car park
Parkd, a company that builds prefabricated car parks out of reusable concrete components, closed its $6 million IPO early after being two times oversubscribed and will start trading on the ASX late next month or early in December.
The Perth-based company, which has patented technology to build car park systems almost half the weight of their traditional equivalent, offers landowners a way to use vacant space in as little as one-quarter of the time and for as little as 65 per cent of the cost it takes to build an equivalent conventional car park.
Parkd will build its first structure early next year for a Subaru dealership in the WA capital and says it has had talks with other landlords including Perth Airport and mall owner Vicinity Centres to supply the product during their planned redevelopments.
“We’re offering a product that is easier to get rid of when you want to develop a site or change use of a site,” managing director Peter McUtchen told The Australian Financial Review. “It’s a concrete car park that you can assemble and build and then you can disassemble it and move it.”
The company, chaired by former AHG chief executive Bronte Howson, seeks to tap the growing interest in prefabricated construction that reduces building costs by manufacturing elements offsite and assembling them on location to reduce build time and labour costs. MacEquity was the IPO lead manager.
Art gallery MONA founder David Walsh is using prefabricated technology for the new hotel he plans to build aside his gallery on the Derwent River outside Hobart. Lendlease is developing the tallest timber office tower in the world at Brisbane’s 5 King Street and demand for prefabricated building components, including those made from cross-laminated timber, is exceeding supply in Australia, according to off-site construction specialist Strongbuild.
Redevelopment and expansion
The trick to prefabricating a car park was developing a supporting beam that could span 17 metres – covering two car bays and an aisle – while staying under 24 tonnes in weight, so it could be carried on a standard trailer truck, Mr McUtchen said. The company’s first commercial job, which it will start in March, will build a one-level car park addition to the Subaru dealership in Victoria Park, allowing the retailer to nearly double the volume of cars it keeps on site. The technology permitted structures up to six levels high, Mr McUtchen said.
CBD parking sites and retail malls, hospitals and airports are other potential customers.
Mr McUtchen said Parkd had been talking to Vicinity about the redevelopment it was planning for Morley Galleria mall north-east of the Perth CBD.
“Operators are constantly expanding their shopping centres and car parking,” he said. “Our system offers them a very quick way to create car parks before construction starts.”
It had also spoken to Perth Airport about providing parking bays as the airport undertakes a redevelopment and expansion, he said.
“They invited us to come and talk about the opportunities to build the required number of bays for the short term – 1000 bays – then extend the car park as required,” he said.
Vicinity declined to comment. Perth Airport said it received numerous pitches and had not included Parkd’s system in its current plans.
“Perth Airport was approached by the company you reference and met with it on one occasion,” it said in a statement. “Their proposal has not been factored into Perth Airport’s current redevelopment plans”.
