Indoor car storage facility ideas

I'm toying with a business idea for a property I found, and I'm looking for some feedback.

if you were looking for an indoor spot to store a hot rod, classic, race car, etc, what kind of facility features would you put in the following categories:

1. Must have

2. Nice to have

3. Dang, that's something nobody else offers

Legal business ideas only, not hookers and blow. Thanks!!

I'll start:

i'd like to offer an indoor wash bay, a 110v drop at each space for a battery tender, and clean restrooms. Probably a coke machine too.

I will also do a feature audit of the indoor storage places near me, just to get an idea of what would be typical.

I like this idea but have always been concerned about access and ingress/egress. Meaning can an owner show up at any time and retrieve their car? Or only when an attendant is on duty? And are the cars in a shared space or individual bays? If shared, who moves things around to get to a car? Liability issues would worry me. 

dyintorace said:

I like this idea but have always been concerned about access and ingress/egress. Meaning can an owner show up at any time and retrieve their car? Or only when an attendant is on duty? And are the cars in a shared space or individual bays? If shared, who moves things around to get to a car? Liability issues would worry me. 

Great points. I was thinking:

key card / key pad access

shared space with lines on floor

no attendant

overhead door has manual controls and/or closes a fixed time after opening, with safety beam of course

Open 7AM - 11PM

Security cameras

Laid out like a typical parking garage, ie single deep so nobody gets blocked in

also, my hot rod garage slash genetic engineering ranch is one half of the building. 

We have a great facility here in Austin called Petrol Lounge.  Typical clients are high-end.  I stored my McLaren there for awhile.  There is a similar facility in Houston called Alara Garage...run by a racer.

Key items not often considered:

- high filtration HVAC to keep cars looking good, not dusty.

- fire suppression...so much at stake.

- building and contents comprehensive insurance, just in case.

- on site detailing available (work out something with a local expert provider)

- delivery/recovery concierge service, including to a repair/maintenance service provider

- battery tenders...lots of 'em.

- security camera system...you just never know

- dash cams for when you are driving someone else's car

- business insurance that covers you for driving someone else's car.  Even if it's just moving it around on site.

We owned a LARGE building, a former shoe manufacturing facility and I did indoor storage in part of it. Contact me and we can discuss the idea and give you some of the good and bad issues. 

Very nice upscale facility here in Birmingham called Out of Office garage

Our local facility has a full time employee for topping off the tank, detailing and light maintenance.  He can handle tire changes, oil changes etc.

He drives an Alfa 4C, and is part of my dads old garage group.  
 

Im interested in what the monthly cost is for this service.

Filtration is a must my garage has the opposite, lots of ventilation, my cars are almost cleaner kept outside.

Some kind of "clubhouse" space which could be available for events. Someone into cars having a birthday party or something in a clean and bright place surrounded by nice cars would be nice for the "members" 

WHat's the price point for something like this?

Great ideas and points to consider, thanks! Keep 'em coming!

Before you get too far into stuff, make sure the safety of the cars being stored is totally taken care of.  So there are really good fuel/oil based extinguishers all over the place.  The warehouse that we stored our cars at actually "banned" certain fuel filters because they regularly broke when stored badly.  

Also, work space.  Or a handful of good sized bays that you can work at.  Project cars that are well kept are fun to look at and talk to the owners about when doing your regular get togethers at the building.  

Compressed air, lifts, cleaning places, presses, etc- and the accompanying cleaners for that.  The warehouse we were at had specific training and sign offs to allow people to 1) work on their car and 2) to use the tools at the facility.  

Because of the work space, there was a pretty nice bathroom that included a shower area.

That being said, for a while, we got a lot of flak for someone else encroaching their project into our area.  Really left a bad taste in my mouth- especially because it was really clear to anyone looking that it wasn't our stuff that was strewn all over the place.

It's been a decade since I was at the warehouse in Ypsi, but I think it's still a thing.  Lots of really nice cars are there seasonally and permanently.  So I'd be pretty confident that the demand is still in the area.

I have my track car in storage right now and most of the ideas above are already implemented. For what I pay it's worth it.

I'd just find a way to give users early morning/late access somehow. I'd add that I would love to have a secured "staging" area where one could get their car set up for an event, but it's still secure in your location. 

I looked at doing this and the cost of the space to rent or purchase made it necessary to stack cars. The easy button was a bunch of 4 post lifts with drip trays.

For my personal situation I bought a 4 post lift as an elevator and use pallet racks to store my back burner projects.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Go to the monthly open house at the warehouse in Ypsi. It's exactly what you're proposing and you can look around, maybe ask questions of the guy who owns it, or some of the patrons. First Saturday of the month, I was there just last week.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Go to the monthly open house at the warehouse in Ypsi. It's exactly what you're proposing and you can look around, maybe ask questions of the guy who owns it, or some of the patrons. First Saturday of the month, I was there just last week.

Dude I was there last Saturday too! I got there kinda late though, about 11:15, hung out til about 12:30.

I've had this thought as well, and have a few extras I'll throw out there:

Hardtop storage.  Especially for those that have Jeeps or Miatas that run a hardtop in the winter and a softtop in the summer, having a dry place to put the hardtop is essential.  Additionally, a few storage hooks or slots to put Jeep doors when the weather gets really nice.

In regard to Jeeps and other offroaders, a separate area (preferably outside) to wash off the mud and chunks off.  A wash bay is nice, but very easy to get muddied to hell with one careless Jeeper.

I agree on the lounge area.  The death of the third place is real.  To that end, a few events with local wineries, breweries, cigar clubs etc. would be great to keep the members engaged, and able to see a reason to stay with you.

Don't forget the motorcycle crowd.  

Pets.  This is a tough one, but if there's a way to have an area where dogs can stay while someone gets their car washed or out of storage, that will keep pets out of the way, but also allow owners to take their buddy with them for an afternoon ride.  

One note: I'm not looking to own a place where people can work on stuff. No hoists, no tools. Straight storage plus (maybe) a wash bay.

Motorcycles yes.

Offroaders no.

Clean(-ish) vehicles only.

Hardtop storage = brilliant!

Fire extinguishers = absolutely, they're so inexpensive.

appreciate the ideas! I'm really looking forward to employing the Childo proceeds to build additional wealth.

classicJackets (FS) said:

Very nice upscale facility here in Birmingham called Out of Office garage

Never heard of them, but I'm a westsider. Definitely going to give them a call. Biffingham has money.

E3 storage franchise is clise but not quite since they offer a shared lift and tools, but that could be your wash bay. Price and access issues might be good to talk to them about. 

For basic storage all I would be concerned about is that it's secure, dry, rodent and bug free, fireproof (at least equipped with sprinklers) and with a reasonable monthly rental cost.  Heat would be nice but not necessary.  In my part of the country, this kind of storage is generally done from approximately November 1 to April 1, and people aren't trying to access their cars during that period.  If you're in a climate where people will be accessing their cars and/or moving them in and out, the logistics get a lot more difficult.

Years ago I used to store cars at a pole barn about 20 miles outside town.  The owner of the place would pack them like sardines, so to avoid having to shuffle cars around you had to arrange a specific day in the fall to drop your car off and a specific day to come get it in the spring.  If you were the first one in the barn in the fall you were the last to get out in the spring, and vice versa.  It worked fine, but as I said above people weren't accessing their cars during the winter.

Our local mall was turned into a storage facility by Seacoast Cars & Coffee. They have a coffee shop and sell pastries. They also host club events.

https://www.seacoastcarsandcoffee.com/storage.html

I'm pretty happy with the storage facility I use.  $130 a month, and I get a dry 10x30 storage space with metal walls and smooth cement floors.  There is no electricity, nor any other services.  


 

So I own one of these places...Eclectic Motorworks has a 2nd 18,000 sq ft building and we store about 70 cars. We could store 100+ if we packed them in tighter, but we like to have decent space between the cars and we have a rule that we won't need to move more than one car to get to another. About 3/4 of the cars can be moved without moving another car. 

About 2/3 of the building has heated epoxy floors and offers the museum-like experience.

The back room is still neat and tidy, but not quite as nice and has posts that bring limitations. It has forced air heat. This is where we park the cars a little tighter and put them two deep. I keep some of my own stuff here too like the stupid boat.

Lots of good things already stated. Here is what I can add:

• Write a pro forma or some sort of business plan right away. Plan conservative numbers--take about 20% off your expected income and add about 20% to your expected costs. Look at the plan every week and have trusted family members or friends help you hold yourself accountable to it. Scope creep and other compromises destroy many good business ideas that don't stick to realistic plans. 
• Figure out what you're really selling besides space--are you selling convenience (easy access all the time), an experience ("clubhouse" and events), etc? Make sure you benchmark similar businesses as you set your policies and prices, and make sure to remind your customers via your marketing materials what they are buying. At Eclectic, we sell fairly easy access (we won't let a customer in without an an employee present, but will make off-hours appointments with very little advance notice needed), a museum-like experience, and most of our customers are also service customers who get priority in scheduling. If people compare us to a packed pole barn or generic storage facility, they'll think we're overpriced. If they understand our value proposition, they're long term customers.  
• We're in Michigan, too, and we keep the place about 50 degrees in the winter and ambient in the summer. Keeping cars at a constant temperature, especially above freezing in the winter, keeps batteries and brake fluid happy. In the summer, it rarely gets above 85 inside and holds a pretty constant temperature between day and night.
• You will likely have customers who don't pay or who pay very slowly. Build that into your business plan and make sure you have clear policy about payments, late payment fees, etc.. Enforce the policies from day one if someone goes late. In bad cases, you may have a customer who isn't paying and won't take their car away. Then you're losing opportunity income. At Eclectic, we can put a mechanic's lien on a non-paying customer car, but never have. If you're not a repair shop, that option may not be available.
• Regarding pricing, it's very location dependent. I bet you could get close to double in Detroit to what we charge since we're in a smaller community with fairly decent real estate prices. So as you benchmark prices, benchmark the local real estate market as well. There is a strong correlation.
• You'll have friends that come out of the woodwork who just want to store a car "for a few days" which quickly turns into months. These friends tend to think storage is "free" rather than a business, so be ready for them. They're the same friends that borrow your trailer and it comes back with a bent fender or broken lights.
• How you park the cars is really important, and keeping them organized all the time is also very important. One year, we were a little sloppy as cars came in the the fall--it took about 10 hours to rearrange them instead of 5 minutes per car to put them in the right spot in the first place. 
• We currently have a one-price system, but will likely be moving to pricing that will consider location in the building (premium spots for more $$) and size of the car (we currently have motorcycle and car pricing, we'll likely move to motorcycle, small car (<14' long) and large car (>14'). Ask me next year how that works...
• Digital photos and video security (we use Simply Safe) are a must, but you still may have people accuse you of damaging their cars. It hasn't happened to us yet, but I have friends with similar businesses that have had that and it's a mess. 
• No matter how careful you are, expect to ding a car every now and then. In 20+ years, we've done it twice. We usually park cars with a spotter and push them the final 3-6 feet into their parking position.

Glad to talk more offline if you'd like. While I may sound a little negative above, I think these types of storage facilities are a huge opportunity for the future. Look at the boat industry, the golf industry, etc.. There are similar business patterns in those--you buy something but also have monthly fees and a cultural hangout. Car storage can work the same way.