Car Condos

[97m6formula]

I'm not sure how many of you have heard this idea, but there is a company that has built the complexes in Texas, Florida, and currently building in New York and Vegas. I want to essentially mimic this business but do it in Chicago where I live and then in China and possibly Japan. I understand that the real estate market is horrible right now, however these places haven't felt the plunge in the market. Its directed more towards wealthy individuals, but they are selling a good deal and people are loving it. I don't have a ton of capital, or at least not near enough it would cost to start this. What I'm really just looking for is advice on how to get something like this started. I think with the chicago market getting hit this bad it has made land much cheaper than it has been in the last 7 years. This is the website of the company currently doing it. Park Place Exotic Car Storage and Garage Facility. I guess I can't post urls yet because this is my first post but just google that name. I want to do the same thing, but in areas they haven't gotten to yet. I say china and japan, but what I really mean is anywhere that has a lot of apartments and condos and lack of parking. I'm wondering what ideas or advice I can get. I have connections with a couple real estate companies in the city of Chicago as well as developers that currently build regular condos. I'd like to have a basic shop built in to the place also where we could do minor repairs, detailing and maintenance etc.. to the current tenants vehicles. I have a great deal of knowledge on automobiles so that aspect of the business I know I could do. Thanks in advance for your help

[jasaunders]

I don't really understand it. People want parking close to where they live so they can easily access their car. How would this accomplish that?
Plus in places like Japan, public transportation is used much more so than in Chicago, there are a lot fewer drivers per capita. But Japan does have some technologically advanced garages to take advantage of the limited space they have.

[TheCompany]

Plus in places like Japan, public transportation is used much more so than in Chicago, there are a lot fewer drivers per capita

Well said...

[97m6formula]

Lets say you have a condo in chicago. You dont have enough spaces for your cars, or you have a boat or rv. Not just regular cars and boats. Usually exotics and high priced boats. People would put there boat in there in the winter and have easy access to get it in the summer to bring on lake michigan or where ever. People pay the same or more than a 175k mortgage to keep their boat in any of the harbors along michigan or to buy a parking space. If these car condos are selling out places that have nice weather all year round, how could they not sell somewhere that you can only drive your nice car or boat for half the year if you're lucky. There is a player on the Chicago Bears that lives in my cousins condo complex that said he would buy one as well as one other member of the team. I dont get how it would work in new york but not here in chicago. Obviously it's not for middle income families, but there are a lot of wealthy people in chicago. The company that'sdoing this has things like a wine cellar to keep tenants wine in if they wnat to store it there. Some of the places have built in safes for valuables. Here is another article

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomebuyingGuide/ACondoForYourCar.aspx

[jasaunders]

So you are basically targeting people who don't need to access their cars and boats. I guess you will need to do some serious market analysis to see if there is a market for it. Indoor parking spaces in Chicago go for anywhere from $15k to $35k, depending on location. You'll really need to do some good market research if you want to get funding for this project.