[SwingLo]

You guys see this?

The first location is in Minneapolis and they are opening on on Ferry Rd and 59 (Basically right at the 59 exit off of 88) - great location.

You basically buy a garage space in there and trick it out any way you want. They do car shows, et al.

What a cool idea. The possibilities are endless. Car shows, concours, heck, you could even do SuperCar Saturdays there. Very cool idea. My brain would burst with ideas of what to do with the space - card games, football parties, etc.

A neighbor has a plane in DeKalb and his hangar is tricked out. Same idea for cars. A friend of mine who owns a bunch of hair salons (small muscle car collection) is already talking to them about it.

Check out the video and see a white Elise at the 3:29 mark:

AutoMotorPlex Chicago

AutoMotorPlex Featured On KARE11 Land Of 10,000 Stories - YouTube

 

[KenRK]

Yep, Autobahn CC w/o the track

 

[JWA]

Pretty cool. Some of those examples from Minneapolis that are really built out with extensive collections are interesting. Something like that would seem to make sense if you live in a high-end building downtown. Otherwise, if you have that kind of dough I'd think that you would just build a garage like that at your house to have them close. A smaller unit would be cool for the typical suburbanite outgrowing his garage.

 

[SwingLo]

I get the feeling that part of the allure is that it's NOT home. Specifically, that you are around like minded enthusiasts. My father in law has a building on their property (maybe 4 acres) that houses a workshop (vac system, etc) and 3 bay garage downstairs (he's got old 50's Chevys) and an office man cave upstairs that overlooks the beautiful pond. No one else sees it but him or random visitors.

I think guys who do this like the idea of sharing/showing off to other enthusiasts. Also people who show the stuff off (like the guy with the Isetta collection) can do it because you can't have a flood of people roaming around your house/property.

I know for my neighbor with the plane that it's his home away from home. He's got his office in there (owns his own business) and goes there every day to work and be around his toys.

The beauty of it is that you don't need a bajillion tennants. Based I'm size, I'm thinking 100 or so (which should be easy).

For the reasonably sized one, it's probably $100K. Then you figure another $25K or so to build it out properly (lifts/lofts/bathroom/kitchinette/media). If that were the case, I would use it as my office too.

 

[JWA]

Yeah, it would be great if you could use it as your office. You could do the same thing at any modern industrial park, but you wouldn't have the right level of security or like-minded people around.

 

[evomind]

Ah, I don't know......
I never felt the burning need to show everyone my cool cars, don't care, I already know theyre cool and I never needed others to validate me.
That said, yeah maybe its cool if you wanna start a "club," I know some bikers who do stuff like that but as someone pointed out its like ACC without the track and ACC does it better if I feel that much money burning a hole in my pocket.
100k?
Come on Swing, theres a million better ways to spend your money.
If you want revenue producing property this probably aint it but I can help you find ones that are.
Don't get me wrong, its all fun, but that's awfully expensive just to show people your Elise.

 

[Pooter]

Haha, me and Kim went to their open house. I was in the dragon and apparently it was quite a crowd pleaser.

 

[SwingLo]

Don't get me wrong, I'd never do this myself but just think its a cool concept
Would be especially cool for a guy with a mid size collection. Maybe 15-20
cars. If he wants to do it on his property, he really can't because you don't want your personal/family space impinged on

There was a guy up north with the killer micro car collection that had a museum in a pull bar building on his property. Stopped doing it because of the hassle. This would be ideal for that.

 

[evomind]

Don't get me wrong, I'd never do this myself but just think its a cool concept
Would be especially cool for a guy with a mid size collection. Maybe 15-20
cars. If he wants to do it on his property, he really can't because you don't want your personal/family space impinged on

There was a guy up north with the killer micro car collection that had a museum in a pull bar building on his property. Stopped doing it because of the hassle. This would be ideal for that.

Well I guess.....If you have a museum of cars and want to give tours AND have bought everything else under the sun and cant think of anything else to buy so you figure what the hey.

I don't know swing, I think most of these guys want their collection at their house, at least until they have too many cars.
The very few guys who can actually afford this usually are not up to showing their cars other than to brokers, potential buyers, another collector, and a few close friends. Once you start including people outside of that circle the owner now has to watch everyone and all his property against damage, scratches, etc...The level of supervision becomes that much greater.
That's work. People don't usually want to do that.

My opinion doesn't matter, if that's your thing and you are able and willing to pay for it then do it.

 

[malakaone]

Jeff...get one so I can come hang out.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

very cool concept and interesting to see how others have tricked out their spaces.

 

[philethier]

Well, I am in the twin cities and it is neat to go out there for a show every once in a while, but these cars are meant to be driven, so the lack of track or autocross space makes it bretty ho-hum compared to Beaver Run, Autobahn or Spring Mountain.

Cars and Cafe is cool, but if there is an autocross that day, it's a no-brainer which I'll be there for.