Thread: Would you have interest in a local "hobby garage"?

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I am looking at creating a new business for a garage that I have trying to sell. My wife thinks this is a crazy idea, but I think there is a market for it.

If any of you are ex-military, you might remember the military carft shops. They had a shop with about a dozen garage bays, a few lifts, a prep and paint booth, a tool crib and you could rent time in the gargage and tools. The costs were incredibly cheap and the shop was well used. I learned to work on cars in one of these and have always thought that it might make a good business in the civilian world.

The shop would be a local venture. The hobbiest would have to be a member of that club and the membership would have to have some annual fee. A bit like a country club membership but for fewer dollars. When you wanted to use the garage bays, you would pay by the day or week. There would be some parking lot space for rent, a couple of garage lifts, a spray booth, a garage bay with a pressure cleaner, a sand blasting booth and a tool crib. Maybe a hot rod shop would rent some space and have parts on site as well.

The site that I won would accomodate about 12 bays and costs me about $4K a month in mortgage payments. There would have to be a crew to supervise the equipment and offer safety training, so there would be at least 3 employees. When I do the math it looks like the club would cost about $240 a year for membership which could be billed at $10 per month. The garage space would be about $30 per day and the spray booth about $50 per half day.

If you were a member, you would have a place to met, a local set of opinions for getting something fixed, and instead of going to the bar, you would have a place to hang out. Plus there would be formal classes on how to do things that you need to know how to do. This would be an 8am to 10pm kind of shop and would be open 7 days plus most holidays.

So here is the question; If this existed in your area would you use it. If we do this, it will be in Austin, Texas.

When I lived in California's High Desert in the 80's there were a couple of these businesses around. I don't think they lasted for a couple of reasons. Primarily insurance cost. Secondly, the fact that the people using it didn't treat it like they owned it (i.e. tore hell out of things). They left junk all over the place, didn't clean up etc. I think if it were supervised correctly it could work as a business. First thing is you can't let the customer determine working hours. Also wold need to protect your investment by charging a large deposit.

Better plan on a tall fence and armed guards, I sure wouldn't want a bunch of high dollar goodies on a car that everybody and their brother could walk by and "acquire" for their own use. Good intentions, but I think you'd have to be insane to take on that kind of risk and responsibility just to be a nice guy.....JMO

No offence, but I think you'd starve.

Most people who are into cars and have the means to build the nicer ones already have their own garage, or simply commision the cars/work to be done.

The guys just starting out would have a hard time affording it no matter how cheap it is.

I'm retired military and remember when the use of the base craft shop was FREE. Then in the 80's it went to a very minimal fee (something like $.50 an hour, with a storage fee after so many days) and even then the use dropped off. In the 90's the Craft Shop went to a fee schedule at about the same rate your proposing and it was darn near empty.

As far as I know it's pretty much a commercial venture at this point, run by a contractor. They do rent space and tools, but also basically run a comercial garage out of it where the car can be dropped of and fixed by the staff at a relatively competive rate with the garages down town. It basically took the place of the old repair shop in the PX gas station when the PX gas stations went to a mini-mart operation. The last time I stopped by admitedly a few years ago, there was almost nothing there but cars being worked on for customers by the "staff".

The only way I've ever heard of this working was because it wasn't a business. It was a local car club buying a defunked, older dealership for use by the club as club house and garage. The club was small so each member had two bays. Everyone contributed for the mortagage payment. I think the the club building was bought out to make room for a new office building.

And to continue to rain sunshine on your parade..........
Don't underestimate the importance of the insurance issue 64 mentioned. Make sure when you research it you talk to an agent with LOTS of experience in commercial insurance. It's not something your "normal" homeowners/personal auto guy will be up on.

Along with Dave's comment, you'll need lockable/secure storage in each bay otherwise there'll be lots of whining about tenants stealing from tenants.

You'll need a "policy guide" to hand to the tenants, along with their signed agreement with all the terms, both rental and operational.

You'll need a process to boot out or seize property of someone who decides to use you as storage because they over estimated their abilities/wallet. And you'll need to be willing to exercise that process without reservation.

Just like the guys have said, this isn't a new idea, and it's never sustained. That doesn't mean someone won't come around some day and figure out a way to make it work. The closest I've seen for success in this type of deal is where the guy rented primarily to "professionals", basically guys who'd worked as body men, painters, mechanics, and either couldn't get along with others, or wanted to venture out on their own but didn't have the finances to start a full blown business. At least those guys were motivated because they needed the income, but on balance it should be said that most of them didn't have the dicipline to "make it" long term. A few did use it as a launch pad for a free standing, legitimate business. All in all, that meant turnover.......but that's what rental space is about.