Exclusive: Car condo sales at Tampa’s new Motor Enclave are racing past the developer’s expectations

Commercial Real Estate
Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Jun 25, 2021

When Rob Elder learned that developer Brad Oleshansky was bringing a $100 million car condominium development to Tampa, he knew immediately he’d be buying one.

Elder, a Detroit native who owns Tampa’s Elder Ford and Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships in Tampa and Lakeland, has committed to a four-car condo at The Motor Enclave. The development spans 200 acres next to Tampa Executive Airport and will include a performance track, an off-road driving course and corporate events space. Elder sees it as an obvious place to entertain customers.

“I’m doing it more for business purposes,” Elder said. “I would bring a customer out there if they want to see how a car handles on the performance track.”

There’s been so much interest in The Motor Enclave from buyers like Elder that presales have raced past Oleshansky’s expectations. His original intent was to sell 37 units in the project’s first phase. But he’s well into the fourth phase, with 165 units — representing $50 million in sales — presold to buyers who’ve put down deposits for one-third of their respective purchase prices. The car condos start at $180,000; the average price is $350,000 for a 1,200-square-foot condo that can hold four to six cars.

“It’s going phenomenal,” he said. “We’ve sold 60 percent of the entire project.”

But the project is more than a playground for luxury and sports car enthusiasts: The 35,000-square-foot corporate events space can hold up to 800 people and is Oleshansky’s main revenue driver.

“The garages are one component, and that’s great, but our real business is becoming the premier corporate event venue,” Oleshansky said.

He’s hired Mind Stone Marketing Group — helmed by two former Tampa Bay Lightning sales and marketing executives — to sell sponsorship rights to the performance track, events center and off-road course.

“We believe our skills, successes, experiences and most importantly our relationships can play a major role in The Motor Enclave’s development into a premier project in the Tampa Bay area,” Eric Blankenship, founder of Mind Stone Marketing, said in a statement.

Oleshansky was originally targeting an April groundbreaking; the project is in permitting, and he now anticipates a September groundbreaking and a mid-2022 opening. Construction Services Inc. of Tampa is the general contractor on the project.

Plans for the project first went public in May 2020. Hillsborough County commissioners signed off in January, and he paid $2.5 million for the property in mid-April, according to county records.