Garage Condo - Mind the Gap

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
My itinerant military lifestyle finally overcame my ability to stash cars in random places and exploit favors for long term car storage. I needed some kind of facility where I could leave vehicles in a temperature controlled environment, not worry about their security, and not have to pay continual storage costs. I had heard about garage condos from checking out Garage Journal over the years and thought this might be the solution for me. I’m from Seattle but I probably won’t be settling there eventually. In that context, I kind of needed something centrally located from a continental standpoint (I live in NOVA after all) and my wife is from Illinois. As it turned out, the nicest garage condo facility I could find is located in Naperville, Illinois.

So today I closed on a 33x55 unit with a 600 sq fit mezzanine and a 600 sq ft third floor. They’re not residential technically but some people actually live out of them -and almost everyone has kitchens etc because they end up getting used mainly as car-storage second homes and big party spaces. I’ll be in the minority of people actually working on cars.

I’ve got big plans for the build-out along the theme of “mind the gap” but I’ll let that explain itself as we go along. Sadly I won’t be doing much if any of the work myself since I’m several hundred miles away, but I will endeavor to keep picture updates coming.

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KND

Well-known member
Wow! Awesome. I wish we have something like that in Quebec. I literally have to buy a farm to store my cars.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jeez..thats amazing! Are those stairs leading to a 3rd floor?
Yes, those lead up to a third level that will be a great space to a bathroom/shower, and bunk house space. The architect is supposed to get us some plans pretty soon and that will give me a better way to show the floor space and how I intend to configure the different areas.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
I totally had the same problem, I started off looking at “garage condo” but hen moved to “storage condo“ and that helped me find some different locations. There are a few places that are at small race tracks. They seem to run the spectrum from kinda basic metal buildings to more elaborate ones like ours. The company is: Iron Gate Motor Condos and is getting pretty close to being complete and sold out. There is another phase of residential townhouses with massive garages if you want to legit live there.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Wish I could find this in NY.
The east coast is totally bereft of garage condos it seems. I can’t help buy wonder if they started in the Midwest because of more relaxed land use policies?
 

Terrapintige

Well-known member
The east coast is totally bereft of garage condos it seems. I can’t help buy wonder if they started in the Midwest because of more relaxed land use policies?
I have been intrigued with these recently also. I remember reading an article about the Monterey Motor Sport Park www.montereymotorsportpark.com and it seems to be a very viable product for any metropolitan area as well as the middle of the country.

I passed this facility a few months ago being built along I-95 adjacent to the Dominion Raceway just south of Fredericksburg, VA. However, it's a little high brow for the way I would be interested in using one of these spaces. https://www.dominionlux.com/
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
I hadn’t seen the Dominion Lux place, I wonder if they’re affi with a place called “The Lux” out in Kansas city. Availability was key for me as well, I have to have everything built out and done by the time I go overseas again in summer 2022, so there are lots of things that could disrupt my timeline if I was reliant on a building being completed in the future. Some places I looked at were already completely sold out. Looks like Dominion Lux has barely broken ground?
 

chris snell

Administrator
Callsign: NW5W
Staff member
Surely someone makes a pre-fab solution for these. I'd love to have one of these, but on my own land.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
The term of art seems to have become “barndominium.” I‘m not exactly sure why because they’re more like “barndomiciles” and not a cross with a condo. Either way, there are some cool projects out there.

As for me, a freestanding building on a piece of land was exactly what I didn’t need. A freestanding structure in a semi-remote location full of valuable property with no one living there is a bad recipe. This is gated, monitored, and 30 minutes from O’Hare if I want to fly in and get a car.
 
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