Venture Concept No. 2

Here in Gainesville towing companies make a fortune charging individuals for parking were they are not “suppose to”. Student who live off campus must take the bus to get to class. The bus ride can take up to 40minutes and take into consideration that campus is only about 10-15 minutes away from almost all apartment complexes. Here scoters are more popular because of their size, but not everyone can afford one. Many students have cars but they just sit on the apartment complexes parking spot, not being use because there’s just nowhere to park. My company, Advanced Construction, would build the most efficient, ecofriendly, underground parking garages, eliminating the parking issue in this city.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62.4 square miles, of which 61.3 square miles is land. The population of Gainesville in the 2013 US Census estimates was 127,488, a 2.4% growth from 2010. Gainesville is the largest city in the region of North Central Florida. But to understand how my opportunity came about we might need a brief history lesson. In the fall of 1906 the University of Florida opened as a university for white men. Over time the university kept growing and so did the city. But the city of Gainesville was one of the many cities that was drastically affected after WWII. After the war The University of Florida had a dramatic increase in enrollment from U.S veterans coming home with their G.I Bills. This resulted in a 95.3% increase in the 1950s population in comparison to the 1940s. Growth staged in the 1960s but as a result of some of the universities expansion efforts, Gainesville saw a major population growth in the 1970s of 117.2%. Here, The University of Florida is a major financial boost to the community, in all the University of Florida contributes nearly $9 billion annually to Florida's economy and is responsible for more than 100,000 jobs. As you can see no one in the early 1900s thought this school will grow as it did. Gainesville was not build to hold such a big population. This has led to many problems, in the 1990s for example, the city went through a huge redevelopment effort to organize the population. Also we have one of the worse homeless problems in the United Sates.  Gainesville was ranked as the "5th meanest city" in the United States by the National Coalition for the Homeless twice, first in 2004 and the again in 2009. We also face another big problem parking. And although in my eyes parking problem is not as important as other issues the city might be facing, this is the issue where I saw an opportunity.

As you have read, parking is a huge opportunity for the city of Gainesville, but my company would have to act fast. But before we move forward let me clear your thoughts and worries about underground construction in Florida. It is possible. If you actually look how Disney was build you will come across a lot of underground tunnels and bunkers and this is all possible through a lot of maintenance. Everyone seems to have this idea that Florida is this huge sponge, well it is, but don’t underestimate the power of technology. We live in a period of inflation, meaning prices are always increasing. Over time equipment, labor and material cost could increase. Right now constructing such a project would be very costly and over time it is expected to get even more expensive. But my company would have a big and productive research and development team, meaning that over time my company could find cheaper but still of good quality materials to build the garages we could also perfect the way we construct the garages to be as efficient as possible. But cost is not the only reason why my company would have to start soon. My vision was build the garages underneath the buildings. So whatever building you had to go to, there would be parking available. Sadly most building at U.F are already built, making it impossible to build something underneath then. But if we start building the garages for all future building we should be able to alleviate the parking burden.

I believe my opportunity is huge. Imagine if we could figure out a way to build these garages here in Gainesville. We would be able to build them in even more populated areas. Especially populated areas which are still under infustructural development. Places like India or China, where there population is abnormally huge, we could find a way to fit all these people but underground. This might be far- fetched, but over time our population will continue to grow, maybe to the point where there is not enough space to hold such a big population. If we could figure out how to build something like garages under the ground we could eventually do even more, maybe homes or other building to give us more space. 

  

Many people seem confused about certain aspect within my idea and I think it’s important to address them here. For starters Gainesville is above sea levels, many seem to ask that question, although there are some areas that are not, so my company would have to run a lot of test just to make sure the areas we are building the garages will have space. Also my garages will only be of 2 floors or less. We would create more space by expanding sideways (horizontally) rather than downwards (vertically). The second and third points go hand in hand. Another point which I briefly hit on was my revenue base. My plan is to make money through the decals but we are a construction company, not a service provider. So businesses, schools or even the government would contract us and pay us to make these garages and it would be up to them to monitor them. And lastly something I care deeply about is our environment. Construction period is not environmentally friendly, usually when contactors go out to build something they start by clearing the land. My company will sadly have to do that, but we will also create a natural environment above the garages if building are not going to be there. This was we will be using a space efficiently and giving back to the environment as well.  

A lot of the feedback I got was positive. Mostly everyone liked my idea and where ready to support it if it were possible, that where I run into some trouble. Although I have extensively done my research and have found that Gainesville is well about sea level and that building  underground is possible to some extent (obviously not 20 stories underground), people tend to still question its possibility. This leads me to believe that my words are just not convincing. Other than that I was given some advice on my word usage and to put the history lesson a little after I explain my opportunity so I don’t put my readers to sleep, and I have applied all of these suggestion onto this post. The key difference in this post is the order and the extra information about elevation and underground construction in Florida. 

Underground Disney