EXCLUSIVE: DEVELOPER WANTS TO BUILD $30M ‘MARINA’ FOR HIGH-END CARS IN NEW ALBANY
COLUMBUS BUSINESS FIRST
By Tristan Navera
May 06, 2020
A developer wants to build a $30 million community just for car lovers in Central Ohio.
Detroit-based developer Brad Oleshansky is planning The Motor Enclave – a specialty community in New Albany for people to store and display their vehicles in specialized.
He’s got 17 acres of land under contract from New Albany Co. at the northwest intersection of Rt. 161 and Kitzmiller Road for a 164-garage community with a corporate events center.
“They’re part man-cave, part entertainment space – something between the home and the workplace for car lovers.” – Brad Oleshansky
The average “car condo” garage will be about 1,200 square feet, which is room for four to six cars, and cost about $350,000.
But the sizes will range from 600 square feet for three to four cars to 2,400 square feet, which can fit 10 to 12 cars. Each two-floor unit is furnished by its owner and can include a mezzanine, which leaves more room for an entertainment area
These aren’t residential spaces, but rather a place where car enthusiasts can mingle and entertain company outside of their own homes.
Think of it as a marina, but for top- notch cars. Owners pay utilities, and there is an HOA fee.
The Motor Enclave, which includes car condos and a driving track, allows owners to customize each condo. Photo by: Brett Mountain
The nine-building complex also will have an event area for social gatherings and events, for which Oleshansky said it’s been easy to find sponsors.
“It’s a great location and I think a lot of my clientele can be found in 20 to 30 minutes of that site,” he said. “And there’s a real appetite from this kind of buyer – a private club with people who share their hobbies.”
Oleshansky built a similar community
– M1 Concourse, in Pontiac, Michigan
– in 2016. But he left M1 Concourse to take the concept to other parts of the country and is pursuing locations for The Motor Enclave in Tampa, Florida, Nashville and Columbus.
He said car lovers often have to find special places to store their collections because high-end communities don’t allow such large garages on homes.
Other examples of this concept include the AutoMotorPlex in Minneapolis and the Iron Gate Motor Condos in Napierville, Illinois.
Oleshansky is an attorney and a two- time winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, one of which was for the M1 Concourse project. He has spent seven years working on this idea.
He said he looks for cities with a large number of upscale car owners and concentrations of wealth and sustained population growth. Columbus is among the top five markets, he said.
The spaces he builds aren’t limited to cars. Some owners in Michigan have built out spaces with golf simulators and cigar lounges and, in one case, a place to display model ships.
Private collectors and auto-centered businesses alike often are members.
The property will be private equity based, with buyers financing the condos. At the same time, he has raised the $30 million needed to begin building the project’s first speculative elements.
EMHT is the project’s civil engineer, InForm Studio is architect and Aaron
Underhill is real estate counsel. The developer is interviewing construction contractors and a bank for financing, but none has been selected yet.
The project will soon submit for approvals from New Albany. Pre- sales for the project will begin this summer with an anticipated opening in June 2021.
A Detroit developer has proposed a 164-garage “car condo” community on 17 acres in New Albany.
The Tampa development has another unusual feature: a 1.5-mile performance track on which people can drive their cars. The track is sandwiched between an airport and a highway to abate the noise.
He said that idea is not practical in Columbus.
“We expect to spend a lot of time at their new location when it opens,”
said Paul Milligan of Columbus Cars & Coffee, a statewide community of performance, classic and exotic cars that partnered with Oleshansky’s group early on at the Columbus Auto Show.
