The car collecting hobby has been around since, well, the automobile was invented and a new trend in the real estate world is looking to alleviate the storage concerns of classic car owners.
A report from Bloomberg said more warehouses are popping up across the United States that offer one service: storage space for classic car owners.
“There is demand for it,” classic collector Henry Robertelli told the outlet. Robertelli is a partner with hedge fund Axius Holdings, a company that is building a 7,000-square-foot car storage facility near Atlanta.
The facility could eventually be expanded to five times that size.
Why the need for new facilities? Timothy Sheehan, a senior director with BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Atlanta, said a greater number of wealthy people are becoming interested in vintage vehicles.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve seen it really shift in the last couple of years,” he told Bloomberg. “It’s gone from people wanting to have the great contemporary art collection or collecting wine to what we’re seeing now: rich people are going after cars.”
The warehouses being built aren’t your average storage facility. As wealthy people begin accumulating more cars as investments, they want a garage that’s impervious to natural disasters, such as the recent hurricanes that have devastated coastal areas in the southeastern United States.
Matt Farah, a Los Angeles-based media entrepreneur, sought a place such as that for years. When he couldn’t find one, he decided to build his own near Venice Beach.
Farah’s 13,800-square-foot facility has been in the works for four years. When it opens next year, he’ll have spent $10 million on a building with stringent fire and safety standards, as well as the ability to withstand a 12-point earthquake.
“Literally an apocalypse,” he said.
For reference, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded was a 9.6 on the moment magnitude scale.
Farah said he already has 85 people on a waitlist for the facility, which will charge between $850 and $1,500 per month for a parking space.
