FORBES.com
When the auto collection includes a $700,000 Porsche
959 or a McLaren El (like Jay Leno, left), a concrete garage filled
with flickering lights and oil slicks simply won't do.
"Garages can't be an afterthought," says Arthur Gallego,
vice president of communications for SHVO Marketing, a New York
City company specializing in residential design. "[They need]
to be elevated from florescent and cement into a nice place."
Jerry Seinfeld would surely agree with that sentiment…
CustomMade Garages For Car Lovers
His garage on Manhattan's Upper West Side can hold 20 cars and
is reportedly filled mostly with the comedian's
Porsche collection. It has terrazzo floors,
wood paneling and a topend climate control
system. Not a bad place to preserve Seinfeld's
$700,000 Porsche 959, a model which is technically
not street legal.
And some say it's not even the most impressive garage on the island.
Heavy Lifting
Farther downtown in Chelsea, developers at
200 Eleventh Avenue are building the city's
first ensuite garage system. The 15-unit
building's car lift system promises to delivers residents, in
their cars, to their apartments.
As the car nears the garage, a computer chip
installed inside the vehicle alerts the automatic
gate. Once it is open, the driver turns in
to the back of the building where the elevator is waiting. Once
the car sin the lift, the elevator registers in which unit the
car belongs and delivers it to that floor, where the resident
then backs into single parking slip which opens to their apartment.
Leonard Steinberg,
director of sales for the property under Prudential
Douglas Elliman, says the buyer of one of his
units "doesn't
park on the street, and schlepping through
the rain or snow to a garage is a humbling
experience."
The only drawback is that the building only
has 14 parking spots for IS units. It seems the odd man out will
have to settle for a driver at the front door.
For residential properties, lift systems serve both to maximize
space and to provide security for pricey cars.
American Custom Lifts, based in Escondido Calif., design a variety
of parking systems from basic multicar lifts
to subterranean garages. Their PhantomPark,
which runs $50,000 for pads and installation, has two platforms
that raise and lower cars from a single street level slip.
Highend homeowners "want to be sure about security" says
Brad Davies, president of American Custom Lifts. "If you've
got a halfmillion dollar car, you want it in a place where a robber
can't get to it."
Greenbacks Into Garages
Designers like Davies say the market for customized garages is
booming. In 2004. according to the National Association of Home
Builders, consumers spent $2 billion on garages. Today, that number
is higher than $3 billion.
"The garage is where the home theater was 10 or 15 years ago," says
Chad Haas, founder of Vault, a topflight custom garage goods company
based in Beaverton, Ore. "If you wanted to spend $10,000 or
more on a TV or sound system at that time it would have seemed crazy,
but now it's commonplace."
Why all the hoopla surrounding garages?
With the size of investment made in a car collection, its only
natural garages should follow.
The better the cars, the better garages need to be at servicing
and protecting them. A
brisk sea breeze can be great for driving in a convertible, but
the salty air hurts the chrome and paint. In Corona Del Mar, Calif.,
at the $75 million Portabello Estate, owner Frank Pritt, founder
of software company Attachmate, has an underground parking lot,
which holds 16 cars.
Given the ultramodern design of the house itself, and its smooth
architectural lines, it's only filling that Pritt's garage should
be stocked with classic droptop Cadillacs. Cars are raised and lowered
to a gallery filled with the iconic fins and long bodies of cars
iconic to the West Coast beach culture.
"Of all the overthetop amenities that you see being put into
buildings, [luxury parking systems] will stand the test of time," says
Steinberg. "Everyone drives cars." |
Heavy Duty Vehicle Lifts