$25 Million Luxury Car Storage Campus could be rolling into Broadview Heights
Gentlemen, turn off your engines and park your cars inside of your man caves.
That in a nutshell is the vision of Jeff Badger’s $25 million luxury automobile storage campus concept that is currently going through the proper channel at Broadview Heights City Hall.
“It’s extraordinarily exciting,” said homebuilder Badger, (www.BadgerBrothers.com) who currently calls Strongsville home. “I’m a car guy myself and a lot of my customers are car guys. We all have the same problem – what do you do with your storage of vehicles? Collecting cars is different from collecting stamps or coins. Adding to your collection of stamps or coins only requires another book, cabinet or the installation of a new shelf.”
“But, when you add a car to your collection, you have to add a building, a garage space. The problem is there is a limited amount of real estate to build your garage, if any at all.”
What Badger is proposing is Club Motor Estates to be built on 16 acres located on Edgerton Road (east of Broadview Rd) that is currently owned by Shriners International. He said the concept includes eight buildings totaling 160 car units. However, this is no ordinary storage facility.
“Club Motor Estates is an exciting project,” said City of Broadview Heights Economic Development Director David Schroedel. “They will be a welcome addition to our business community. Their research shows that they are entering an underserved market and a higher-income clientele that goes with this type of business and will provide added support and opportunity to our current businesses.”
Each insulated and soundproof unit features electricity, air conditioning, heating, plumbing, fully sprinklered cathedral ceilings, ranging in price from $60,000 to $500,000. Membership to the Club is included and would feature year round events in the Club House, a 400 seat Grand Ballroom, conference rooms, giant-screen TV’s and offices.
“There are many storage rentals. These are condos,” Badger said. “People convert them to their personal and ultimate man cave. They have all the amenities anyone would want or need but, these are for their cars. Since people will be there all year, they’ll want to make it comfortable for themselves and their friends.”
“It’s only limited by your imagination and your pocketbook.”
Badger said he’s been thinking about building Club Motor Estates for nearly a decade and over the last year and a half decided to make it a reality. Originally, Badger was going to build the campus in Richfield but those plans did not work out, which is why he went to nearby Broadview Heights.
“We are still in the North Akron area, Medina County and South Cuyahoga County,” Badger said. “It’s the center of Northeast Ohio.”
Regarding the demand for such a unique, turbo if you will, facility, Badger said, “To give some statistics, there are over 350,000 registered historical vehicles in Ohio, most of them in the Northeast and, there is only a short 3 to 4 month car season. Now, you’ll get 12 months of like minded Passionate people in one place.”
Nationally speaking, there are a few other venues similar to the Club Motor Estates concept, with Badger saying eventually he’d like to take this concept across the country. “Heck, the problems are the same for all car enthusiasts all over the globe,” said Badger.
Everyone scrambles to find a place to store their car(s),” Badger said. “It’s very common to see cars parked next to the tow motor in the back of buildings of Industrial Parks. All car collectors have the same problem.”
That everybody includes Badger who declined to say how many luxury cars he owns but did admit his collection is stored in everything from public storage units, five in a Seville barn, two in the back of an industrial park building, a neighbors garage and under a tarp in his own driveway.
While the deal with the Shriners isn’t finalized and Club Motor Estates hasn’t been approved by the Broadview Heights Planning Commission, Badger is confident.
“I don’t like spending my money because I like to,” Badger said. “The city has been great, easy to work with and excited with the prospects of what we can all do together. We just need to go through the necessary process to make this happen. We don’t see any issues or problems.”