The lack of parking spaces has been a long-term problem at Vlčince. If they were built according to today’s standards, there would be more than 6,000 spots needed to accommodate the current number of apartments. Reinoo is constructing a parking garage for people employed at its office buildings and wants to let Vlčince residents use it outside of working hours for a nominal fee. It is also proposing to the city the construction of a parking garage close enough for people in up to 2,000 residential units to be able to walk to it within five minutes.
The company has already asked the city of Žilina about purchasing the Obchodná land at the market price. Reinoo is currently building the Obchodná office building, which will also include a parking garage with 500 spaces. If it agrees with the city on the purchase of the land at Obchodná, the number of parking space would increase to 750. Of them, 500 will be provided for a nominal amount for parking outside working hours and another 250 will be available to Vlčince residents all day.
“Construction of the parking garage for office staff is scheduled to begin next year, and because we are aware of the catastrophic situation with parking at Vlčince, we would like to provide these places to the public after working hours,” says Milan Dubec, CEO and co-owner of Reinoo. “Vlčince residents would then be able to use the 750 new parking spaces for example, when they are at home from work or during holidays and weekends.”
In order for people to be really willing to use these places, Reinoo is suggesting the parking garage be repositioned to be within 300 meters, or five minutes’ walk, from up to 2,000 apartments. Surveys conducted outside Slovakia indicate that people would leave their cars in parking garages up to a five-minute walk away from where they want to be. Only 600 apartments would be that distance away from the parking garage on Poštová. “The City of Žilina has already been approached to sell us this land at the market price and we believe that it would help us and accommodate local residents,” claimed Dubec.
A green solution to a long-standing problem
The Obchodná parking garage would provide Vlčince with a long-term, modern and green solution to the parking situation there. Just its 3,000 square meters area would have a capacity of 750 cars currently taking up space on city streets and occupying an area measuring 26,000 square meters. The solution would protect greenery and public spaces, as cars do not take up unnecessarily large areas and are concentrated in one place.
Current parking spaces located along Vlčince streets, including temporary and related roads, occupy an incredible 140,000 square meters of space, an area equivalent to 20 football pitches, blocked out by vehicles at the expense of public spaces and greenery. In the worst case, they make it impossible for firefighters or paramedics to drive through smaller streets.
The most ecological factor would be to build a parking house at the same cost of construction and with the same environmental burden for two purposes at once. During working hours on weekdays, or 20% of the year, office staff will park their cars in the garage. For the remaining 80% of the time, the places would be empty. If the parking garage is close to residential units, people living there would be able to use the space when they come home from work in the evening and on weekends and holidays.
New playground and public parking
Reinoo is also building a new playground and multi-purpose sports field for football and basketball near the parking garage. The building will have a green roof and some of it will be underground. New trees will be planted nearby and both sidewalks and benches will be improved.
The charge for local residents to park outside of working hours will be nominal and there would be spaces reserved for the disabled, 48 car chargers and Car Wellness car wash. Parking spaces will not be sold to owners, but would remain accessible to anybody. This will be the first parking garage in Žilina to serve the general public.
It would likewise be connected directly to Obchodná Street, eliminating the need for cars to enter the housing estate’s side roads.
“We are aware that the parking garage will not solve every parking problem in Vlčince,” adds Dubec, “yet it would be a major investment that will help significantly mitigate the problem of finding a place to park.”
Seven million euros is going to be invested by the developer and the public budget would not be burdened a single euro. At the same time, the city would receive an estimated € 800,000 for the land, which it can invest in expanding parking spaces in other neighborhoods. The project is being financed by Milan Dubec’s development company, Reinoo, which has already built Poštová 1 and Zelené Vlčince and is currently constructing Obchodná 1. It also reconstructed the historical Bank of Žilina building.
More information can be found at www.pdvlcince.sk
