Deal a garage opener 

Jersey Journal, Friday, August 4, 2006
 
HOBOKEN - City officials and the former operators of the Garden Street automated garage reached a settlement Wednesday that will keep the 314-space garage in business.

According to a joint statement released yesterday, the city will pay Robotics Parking Inc., of Clearwater, Fla., $5,500 a month for three years to license the software needed to operate the intricate system of elevators, pallets and pulleys.

"We are proud to turn this garage over to the city to operate and maintain," said Dennis Clarke, general manager of Robotics, which was abruptly expelled from the facility last week.

Parking Utility Director John Corea said the city intends to sign a month-to-month contract with Israel-based Unitronics to provide operations and maintenance at the first-in-the-nation garage. The city will pay Unitronics the same amount as Robotics' former contract - $23,250 a month.

The city owns the garage and charges motorists $200 a month for a spot.

The dual arrangement stands to cost the city only slightly more than the $27,900 a month the city refused to grant Robotics, thereby sparking the two-week-long standoff.

Federal Court Judge Stanley Chesler, sitting in Newark, dismissed without prejudice the injunction - meaning that Robotics can still seek legal relief for infringement of its copyrighted material.