In Raymond Mitri’s line of business, he must dig deep. That’s because the president of Miami-based consultancy Idec LLC provides underground parking space to a community that is fast running out of developable land.

"Deeper means cheaper" is the mantra Mitri likes to use to illustrate how costs even out if more than one floor of parking is excavated. At present construction prices, he says builders should budget $25,000 to $60,000 per space for underground parking. As they add more underground floors,

the average cost per space will go down. Nonetheless, he says that a below ground parking bay weighs in at $15,000 more than one above ground. The trade-off is the potential return. If the land above ground in a hypothetical project were to be used for retail rather than parking, it would attract rental values of $150 more per square foot than parking would yield, Mitri says.

Mitri believes the tide is turning in a community that once thought underground parking was inconceivable because of South Florida’s high water table. Technology has advanced to the point where such projects are now under way overseas.

Idec is bringing some of that technology from Europe to excavate below ground in South Florida. Its soil-mixing machine removes groundwater from construction sites. The process of pumping in concrete to form underground walls, while also pumping the ground water out, are carefully coordinated.

Other developers have plans to build floors below ground in South Florida. Mapocho Development LLC plans half a level of underground parking at River Regent — a project that the City of Miami is to review this month.

"You can’t do more than that near to the water," Alberto J. Otero, the project architect, says. "We incorporated underground parking in the Commodore Center, which I worked on several years ago, and we never touched water."

The Gables Regent — a Puig & Associates Architects and Planners Inc. development — will have one floor below the surface.

"We’re at sea level," president Ralph Puig Jr. says. "The hardest part is learning the water table is too high. Also the coral is hard to mine so it’s very expensive and labor intensive."

Key International Inc. incorporated three floors of underground parking at its Marriott South Beach venture. "We did it so we could maximize profits," vice president Iñigo Ardid says, "on a project limited by height restrictions."

On this theme, Mitri predicts that Miami 21 – the city’s revised planning ordinance which is to be implemented this year – will encourage underground parking development because it supports approval of projects on the basis of volume.

Then there are the intangible benefits of putting parking below ground.

"If you don’t have cafes and retail at ground level, the blight continues," he says. "If you have 15 to 17 floors of car parking, it can create a sense of alienation. … It’s just not built on a human scale."

Last month, work began on an Idec project in Miami Beach that’s to include underground parking. Capri is a condominium project on West Avenue in Miami Beach. In the summer, Mitri hopes to start work on Byblos in Miami — a 120-foot-high mixed-use project for which the city commission granted a major-use special permit. The development is planned with three floors of underground parking.

"I have a limited height area," says Mitri, who plans 13 stories aboveground. "By going below ground, I’m gaining floors and increasing the sellable area. In the long-term, it also increases the values of properties and it’s better for tourism"

Two other named Idec projects — the new-build Rivage in Miami Beach and the redeveloped Sonesta Beach Resort Key Biscayne in Miami — will have underground parking.

Mitri refuses to be drawn out on details of other projects he is working on, though there is another in the planning stage in South Florida and others in New York. "The next project is going to be more high-end than Byblos," he says. "It will be much bigger in terms of the number of units and their size. None of them is to be smaller than 5,000 square feet. I’m also working on two major projects in New York, one of which is an 83-block development. The projects aren’t public yet so I can’t disclose details."

In the meantime, Mitri is on a mission to educate South Florida’s municipalities of the concept’s merits. He has met with officials from Miami Beach and Palm Beach to discuss providing underground municipal parking.

Ironically, it was Mitri’s preoccupation with modes of transportation that first brought him to South Florida 12 years ago. The region seduced him and, like a lot of visitors, he decided to return and make Miami his home — in his case two years later.

"I came to the Boat Show in 1994," Mitri says. "I worked in the travel industry." In 2001, he traded travel for real estate, and in 2004 began looking into underground parking. "I wasn’t in construction when I came to Miami. It’s just that I have ideas," Mitri says.  — Suzy Valentine