Robotic parking: a space-saving solution.

Imagine never having to prowl a parking garage in search of your misplaced Mercedes. Or joust with other commuters for that solitary silver of a parking space. Or even park at all.

Sound like some predawn weekday fantasy? Try potential soon-to-come reality.

That's if Robotic Parking of Clearwater is able to sell the city of Tampa on the idea of building an automated parking garage in downtown. If it succeeds, it would be the first such garage built in the United States.

The potential project, which the company will officially pitch within the next two weeks, would mean transforming the soon-to-be new police headquarters' 65-space parking garage (the former Sun-Trust Bank building) into an automated job that could handle as many as 750 cars.

Plus, the project promises to help alleviate some of downtown Tampa's worsening parking squeeze caused by, among other things, the surging popularity of the newly opened Ice Palace arena.

As it stands, there are only about 19,000 parking spaces for some 30,000 folks who currently make the daily trek …