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Parking garages are not lucrative. The cost to build a parking garage runs $20k-30k per parking space. Building one underground adds an additional $10k/space. In contrast, a parking stall on a flat slab is going to run only a few hundred dollars (in Denver, the cost for thick slabs you can park semis on runs about $800/parking stall).

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They do get built, though, so they are profitable enough apparently.

It's funny, neither article nor any comment mentions the subways in NYC, which are excellent. That would seem like the no-brainer choice for navigating Manhattan; it certainly is when I visit. That this guy must visit Manhattan locales by cars is... I dunno, perhaps being too picky? Anyways, if people want to keep doing it, parking will surely pop up at prices the market can bear.

$30K is not very much when you consider that a parking space in a dense urban area can charge $300-$400 a month, even while competing with free street parking. At $300, that's $3600 a year, or about a 12% return on your investment just from the cash flow alone (and the value of the space will rise over time as well.)

Double digit returns on a relatively low-risk investment aren't exactly bad.

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