Here's a real estate you'll soon be seeing around the country: condo, secure building, sleeps up to four, good location, premium amenities, concierge, rooftop club, $325,000. But it's not a place for people -- it's for cars. That's right, car condos now feature among the next wave of luxury accouterments for the swelling ranks of plutocrats.
The sum of $325,000 might sound like a lot to spend on a garage for your car, but think of the options: renting a bare bones hangar at a distant airport, keeping the car under a tarp in a parking garage, or owning a house with enough land for a huge car stable. The latter is not always easy to do in a metropolis, even for the filthy rich. Besides, when each of the four cars you need stored could be worth $325k on its own, all of a sudden the price is not so bad.
LA's Luxury on Main, for instance, will feature 80 units, the standard size being 650 square feet, and it is expected to open some time late next year. Club Auto Sport in San Jose is expected to go live next spring, and Dream Garages out of Texas has started in Dallas and is looking to expand across the country. It's a good time to be a really expensive car.
Thanks for the tip, Stuntman Mike!
[Source: LA Times]
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles
MINI dealers to sell Alfa Romeos in the U.S.
Honda to reveal OSM open-top concept in London
With crisis looming, GM may unveil Volt for 100th anniversary
Next BMW M5 will nix V10 in favor of twin-turbo V8
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Lincoln MKS
Track Test: 2008 Roush 427R Trak Pak Mustang
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Porsche Cayman S
First Drive: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata Retractable Hard Top
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony Starks @ Oct 17th 2007 7:40PM
Or you can do what Jerry Seinfeld did and buy a whole building next your own, gut it and turn it to a pesonal parking garage.
http://www.observer.com/node/45725
ckm @ Oct 17th 2007 9:47PM
BTDT.
Me and 5 others rent a large warehouse where we not only store cars, but restore them as well. Works out pretty cheap, around $500 month each, everything included.
We've fully equipped the place with hardlines for compressed air, 3-phase power, lots of lighting and workbench space. In addition, we have a LOT of tools, including large industrial tools such as CNC vertical mill, manual lathe, CNC plasma cutter and several different kinds of welders, sand blasters, not to mention hand tools and lifts. It's taken 6 years to get it to this almost fully equipped state.
Right now, we have 4 project cars, two race cars, one weekend sports car, two karts and 3 race bikes. We're storing a further 5 cars awaiting restoration and recently acquired an enclosed trailer for race car transport. We often joke that NOTHING will ever get finished.
BTW, most of these condo places are a joke. You basically can't work on your car there, and they don't stay open that late. Sometimes we're at the warehouse at 3am grinding steel (it's in an industrial area, so no one cares....). Overall, it's pretty fun, we often have BBQ's and our fridge (yes, yes, we also have a pinball machine and a defender console game) is usually stocked with beer (and much more water, gatorade).
Cheaper, more fun, less snooty, more capabilities and we're in control. What more could you want?
Chris.
P.S. Yes, we all have girlfriends or wives. As Jay Leno once said when his wife told him he smelled like a car "at least you know where I've been"...
Ted @ Oct 19th 2007 11:09AM
CKM,
Your shop sounds like heaven.
Yes, I am jealous.
I use my former employer's car stereo shop for my projects. Climate controlled, plenty of tools, beer fridge, but...it's not mine.
-ted
ckm @ Oct 17th 2007 10:19PM
Well, you can do it. The hardest part is finding a bunch of trustworthy like-minded people. It did take us about 8 months of intensive looking to find just the right space, however.
Chris.
riverhead @ Oct 17th 2007 10:04PM
Disgusting. Only in America can you have homeless people and car condos.
ckm @ Oct 17th 2007 10:22PM
Please. Don't be ridiculous. In most cities in the world, people PAY for parking. This is exactly the same thing, just a one time payment instead of a monthly thing (and it's a bit more expensive).
Never mind the fact that almost anywhere in the world, the value of property increases if it's got a garage attached.
Besides, I live in an American city where we spend $450 million/year on homeless services. How much does your city spend (or your country for that matter)?
Chris.
riverhead @ Oct 17th 2007 10:30PM
Don't get so defensive Chris. This is more than merely paying for parking. Your City must have a big budget if it spends that much on Homeless services ... are you sure that figure is correct? Anyway, any amount spent on the homeless is good. The car condo thing is over-the-top, don't you agree?
ckm @ Oct 17th 2007 10:53PM
Sorry, I don't agree. If you have a small car collection worth a million (say 4 $250k cars) then $300k for housing them is cheap insurance, much better than keeping them in your house. If you've owned some collectible cars for any amount of time, the appreciation in value over the last 5-10 years could easily put you in this category. And if you live in a city, then it's not like you can just build a bigger garage.
And, yes, I do live in a big city and the number is correct. The overall city budget is around $5 billion. You'll find that most big cities in the US spent a lot of money on homeless services, regardless of what propaganda you've been hearing. I'm kinda sick of people making random blanket assumptions like this about this US. Oh, and I'm European, escaped 15 years ago.
Chris.
Jay Evans @ Oct 18th 2007 8:42AM
riverhead meet reality...
"The New York Times reports this morning that private parking spots cost an average $165,019 in Manhattan. Eight people are said to be on the waiting list for a chance to pay $225,000 for a spot in the basement of a new condo building."
For a parking SPOT.
Rob @ Oct 17th 2007 10:30PM
Sweet! One stop shopping. I'll know just where to go to steal rare hi~end cars.
big L @ Oct 19th 2007 12:10AM
The Luxury-on-Main project is in Orange County near the John Wayne airport....prob City of Santa Ana. Not L.A. as author stated.