At the 535 Carlton parking garage (aka 585 Dean), grousing about understaffing and delays, even before expansion and sewer installation

I recently wrote that below-ground garage on the project's southeast block added 469 parking spaces, not the announced 455, to the existing 303 spaces, and wondered how well those 772 spaces could work.

(The entrance is within the 535 Carlton building, but on Dean Street, with the address of 585 Dean.)

After all, as I wrote there were bottlenecks when the garage only held 303 spaces. It's not just the garage, it's the limited capacity of the street, given double-parking and periodic fire trucks.

That said, only certain arena events--big concerts attracting seniors, playoff games--attract a greater number of vehicles.

Ongoing questions

One question, yet unanswered, is whether there's a limit on capacity for garages, in this case, with one entrance lane and two exit lanes. (I queried the Department of Buildings, but didn't heard back.)

Another question is the impact, starting next spring, of the combined sewer installation on Dean Street, which could last 18 months.

Past challenges

But there is evidence that, even before the expansion, some drivers got frustrated, though that may have more to do with staffing than design.

A reader commented:

"I parked my car in this garage for a couple of years and it was a terrible experience. The garage was always understaffed and it took forever to get my car out (every single time). I never attempted to get my car during Barclays events- only during "normal" operations. The idea that they doubled the size of the garage at 535 Carlton while maintaining the single entrance and exit is absurd."

Looking at the reviews

On Yelp, the garage has one five-star review and 16 one-star reviews, several of which cite understaffing and a few of which cite arena events. 

Of course, reviews tend to be outliers, and there are a lot more garage users than disgrunted reviewers, so these can't be definitive. But there may be a pattern.

Those include:

Event at Barclays...Booked a spot using ParkWhiz!... Pulled up to find a line of 6 cars ahead of me, didn't think anything of it; it was a Saturday afternoon. Ten minutes passed and I was still in the same spot... There was only 1 person working!!!! 

Also:

While the ONE staff member upstairs was very nice (only two guys on duty in spite of a major event going on at Barclays Center.) there's a basement parking lot, with only two elevators down to their parking facility. They were only using one elevator at the end of the night... but this was absolutely ridiculous. 

Another wrote:

I pulled up at the entrance and there were two cones at a closed garage door, one blocking the entrance side and one blocking the exit side. I sat for a minute and the door opened and a guy removed one cone to let a car leave... I got out of the car and asked if this was the wrong entrance. He says, "we're full". I say "but I already paid." He says, "it doesn't matter, we're full. get a refund." 

One review, though flagged by the Yelp algorithm as not recommended, has the level of detail that made me think it's not fake:

I had a terrible experience with the valet handling the tickets and money on Sunday December 8, after attending a Nets game... 

When I returned to pick up my car, the wait for the car was unbelievable. They had 4 valet drivers (2 who were older and a slower than the younger guys) working on an afternoon when the Brooklyn Nets played and the game ended around 5 pm.