Top 10 Most Expensive Car Garages in the World
Christopher Duran Quick Links
A garage is just a place to keep your cars, but sometimes it becomes more than that. When does it become more than just a garage? When it becomes more expensive than the usual garage, of course. And also when it has a kitchen, a living space, a TV, a gambling room…etc.
Take a look at top 10 most expensive garages in the world.
10. Jerry Seinfeld’s garage – $500,000
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld stows his Porsches in a hideaway in plain sight in a Manhattan side street. Hidden by a plain façade, a ride past the door leads to an elevator taking guests down to the subterranean garage. Encompassing three stories, the garage houses his collection of 46 Porsches and an 844-square-foot living space that includes a club room with a billiard table, a kitchenette and bathroom and an office.
Security and climate is controlled by a computer and Seinfeld can allegedly receive data on the condition of his garage and cars just by checking his phone. While it has all the amenities of home, Seinfeld actually lives three blocks away on Central Park West.
9. “The garage next to Harrods” – $850,000
It’s not expensive for its features or swankiness, just for its location. This parking space/garage is just 6.4 meters wide and 4.75 meters deep yet it is being offered at $850,000, a price worth three averaged-sized homes in the United Kingdom. Why such a price? This is because it is located in one of the prime lots in Britain, specifically Rysbrack St. near Harrods in Knightsbridge. This is also because freehold parking in Knightsbridge does not come easy.
8. Million dollar garage in NY – $1million
This private parking garage is located in an eight-story post-war building formerly used as a parking space and currently housing condominium units. The spot is only being offered to anyone living in the building, the sale will be treated as a real property transaction and comes with a separate deed of sale and contract. The buyer will also be charged for maintenance fees of the parking spot.
What does the buyer get? A parking garage that has direct street access made possible by a curb in front of the garage door. The 12ft x 23ft parking space also has a high ceiling, suitable for a lift just in case the buyer decides to park more than one car in that garage.
7. Francis Wisniewski’s Garage – $1 million
Las Vegas native and Forty4 Asset Management CIO Francis Wisniewski wanted to have a little of home in his garage in Chicago, Illinois, so he built his garage with a Las Vegas theme to it.
His garage, located in a rectangular 15,000-square-foot garage in downtown Chicago, has the “Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas” sign, an avenue lined with glossy red pillars and even a small basketball court. He even has a gambling room (although he cannot legally hold gambling) off to one side, complete with a full-size craps table. The room also houses his collection of sports memorabilia.
His cars are in the sides, half of them stored in lifts each costing $5,000 to save on space. The room is lit like a car showroom. In all he estimated his electrical works cost $200,000, while the ventilation system also set him about the same amount. It took him nine months to design the garage and another nine months to build it.
6. Craig Jackson’s Garage – $2 million
Car collection company CEO Craig Jackson had the mountain around his house in Paradise Valley, Arizona, to consider when building the garage for his muscle car and luxury car collection. His solution was to build the garage like his house, in the shape of a circle, so it would not encroach into the mountain that much.
His $2-million garage is shaped like a tire with the roof and lighting designed to look like a hub cap, his cars are displayed in the side all facing the center like spokes in a wheel. At the center lies the crown of his collection, a Bugatti Veyron resting on a rotating pedestal.
The garage, which took two years to build, has a total area of 3,600 square feet and is lined with leather panels to drown out sound, the lighting can be programmed to switch between hard and soft presets to bring out the best in his car collection. Everything in there is controlled by a computerized operating system.
5. Tom Gonzales’ Garage – $6 million
After software engineer Tom Gonzales decided to retire he sold his company and bought this estate in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. There he built the ultimate garage to house and protect his car and motorcycle collection. Most of his cars and motorcycles are in a building built to look like a mansion, but the best of his collections are stored underground in a lower floor that can be accessed via elevator.
It’s not the normal elevator; it’s 60 feet long, 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. It’s the kind used in aircraft carriers to lift planes from the hold and into the flight deck and it can carry up to three cars and a recreational vehicle at once or up to 250,000 lbs.
The 6,000-square-foot underground garage is climate controlled and spacious, he designed it to have no pillars at all so driving in and out will be easier.
4. Ralph Lauren’s D.A.D. Garage – no information available
When fashion designer Ralph Lauren’s car collection hit 60 he decided to store them in one place. After an underground option failed to be feasible, a car technician found him an old car dealership in Westchester, New York, and he immediately set company vice president Alfredo Paredes to design the garage.
The result was the D.A.D. Garage (named after his children David, Andrew and Dylan) a two-floor museum-like garage where his cars rest on white stainless steel counters under bright halogen lamps. The floor is black, the walls are pillars of white to focus attention on the cars. The ceiling is left in its bare industrial state, although still painted white.
A workshop can be found not far from the display area as well as a small living space including an office and a library.
3. John Travolta’s garage – no information available
This is what we know about John Travolta’s garage in his Jumbolair estate; his facilities can accommodate a Gulftsteam jet and a Boeing 707 and the support vehicles needed for both of them, it has parking space for up to 15 vehicles. That and there’s a 1.4-mile runway leading to the garage. If that’s not expensive, we don’t know what is.
2. Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage – no information available
The talk show host Jay Leno is known for his vast collection of all of kinds of cars and motorcycles. Where does he keep them? In his Big Dog garage in his Southern California home. Spread across two buildings, the 17,000-square-foot garage has a machine shop, a fabrication shop, even a kitchen.
Usually closed to the public, Leno offered to give guests a personalized guided tour of his garage. Tickets were offered at $100 each and for only 215 people. The proceeds were for the Juvenile Arthritis Alliance.
How much did it cost to build the Big Dog garage? Leno isn’t exactly telling. What we do know is that it took $450,000 to turn the place green, as in environment-friendly with solar panels, in 2010.
1. Emirates National Auto Museum – no information available
Yes, this museum is also the garage of Hamad Bin Hamdan al-Nahyan since many of the vehicles are still functioning and he often uses some of them during special occasions. Where does this member of the UAE royal family keep his toys? In a climate-controlled garage shaped like a pyramid in the middle of the desert, some 45 kilometers south of Abu Dhabi.
Since the garage also serves as the Emirates National Auto Museum it is open to the public. Some people have described the garage/museum as a small city complete with walkways, streetlights, painted streets, park benches and even a rotunda.
There are more than 200 cars in this collection including a Chicago Highway Patrol Car, a $755,000 Rolls Royce, a replica 1886 Mercedes, a Russian WWII tank and the biggest Dodge jeep in the world over three stories high.
