Projects Detroit Area: We're Putting Together a Car Builder/Racer Collective.

So we've rented a 20,000 sq/ft warehouse in Ferndale, the nice end of town. We're splitting it up to give guys a chance to work on their rides - a mechanic's cooperative, if you will.

The space is cheap - any profits we make are reinvested into the building to buy common area tools like shop air, plasma cutters, welders and machine tools. I run a shop myself out of it - we're doing the whole, 'For car guys, by car guys" thing.

Hit me up if you want more info. We're just doing this to build some community - There's nothing like it around.

 

That's friggin' awesome, guys!

Having been in a shared garage car club - make sure you run a tight ship. There's got to be laws and some rules to insure that community property and stuff in general is treated with respect.

It can be done, though.

-90% Jimmy

 

For sure. We'll have a good deal of rules and regs to keep everyone happy. There will still be some bold faced screwing around - which I think is the point of this whole thing.

We just went down there and laid out some tape - the spots are going to be mighty cheap. We also have car storage and lots of offices. Mighty fine deal.

 

Post some pictures !, great Idea, ...... Is liability Ins. going to be a issue ?

 

Great idea. I remember seeing something like that in a 1960s popular mechanics. Do you have some pictures?

 

I would like some more info like hows the lighting what kind of power? 220 single phaze or 3 is there good clean johns shower? Where is it at?




Tom

 

sounds like a good idea, hope it works out

 

We used to have a deal similer to that in the Army recreation centers. Rent a stall cheap, tool crib tools and some machinery that we normally didn't have available while moving around from base to base.

 

I'll take some snaps tonight and post them up here. Liability insurance won't be an issue - we're going to get a policy for the facility and we expect individual renters to get renter's insurance. It's not required, though.

Vintage is the idea. We're calling it Paper Street Motors. I'll throw some shots up tonight.

The lighting is very good. You'll have plenty of power drops to add your own if you like. We have 110v / 220v single phase / 220v three phase / 480v single phase / 480v three phase.

The bathrooms are very clean and huge. There's a separate guys and a separate girls bathroom, which the ladies love. We will be installing a shower as the hookups and drains are already there.

It's in Ferndale. Give me a call at 313-903-2963 anytime to check it out. Today is best - but I'm around anytime. I have the month of February to sign enough tenants to make this a reality. If you stop by, I can explain more and give you a tour.

Yep, similar. We're putting together a community of car guys and gals - we're not allowing anyone to move in just for storage of non-automotive stuff. The idea is that we're building a collective - the goal is to get people to start hanging out here and have a damn good time.

There's talk of a beer machine, for what it's worth.

 

i like this idea,and wish i lived closer..some friends and i have been trying to do this in kzoo,but have not found a building yet..good luck!

 

Damn - too bad you're not closer.

It looks like we're about to partner with a tech collective - they'd be renting our offices.

What this means for US is that the shop space gets even cheaper - and in the common tool area we will have a mill, lathe, drill press and so on right off the bat!

We're hunting for a laser cutter and a CNC in the short term. This'll be damn cool.

I have some pictures, but my camera and computer aren't cooperating. The address is 1511 Jarvis, Ferndale, MI if you want to spy it on Google Earth.

I'll be there all today if anyone wants to drop by and take a look.

 

This is a great idea. I wish somebody was doing it near where I live...then I could have a garage again.

 

Ditto what Coronet said. I would love to find some guys or gals around here to do a building like that. I need a garage...

 

Thats awesome wish we had that here, good luck with it.

 

I've always wanted to do this. In fact i got as far as looking at spaces and calling car buddies to see who would wanna get down. Alas i bought a house, & the extra cash to get it started went out the window.

Keep me in the loop, though. i'd like to hear about prices (possibly just for for storage of back burner projects for now) ...I am finding myself to have more cars than spots to keep em, and a local spot run by like minded fools might be exactly what i need. Plus i work with a bunch of guys that would probably love to have their 1 or 2 garages back for use of daily drivers...silly as that seems

Also, If it's more of the traditional "hamb friendly" scene thatyou'll have goin there, i can see many possiblities with hosting mini shows/open house/bbq/show & brag sessions. I'm always down to help out with the MI traditional scene cause. Ity might just be me here, but aside from the few shows a year, i feel like motor city is run by more of the muscle car scene, so a cental spot for trad/hotrod junkies would be cool!

 

Speaking of pics... This is it! All of the stuff in the shop will be gone, and the floors/carpet will be cleaned. It's shiny, perfect concrete with just a bit of dust on it.

Without further ado:

 

whats the cross roads?

 

We're looking at about $200/mo for one usual sized unit which is big enough for a car, the room to work on it and lots of tools/spares. You'll also have access to the community stuff such as welders, fab benches, paint booth, plasma cutter, mill, lathe, drill presses, CNC and blah blah.

It's definitely HAMB friendly. There will be hotrod junkies galore. I'm scurrying some parts together to build my model A truck i've always wanted - we've got another guy thinking of working on some Bonneville fast stuff there - another dude asked about rebuilding his '69 F-250. That's just one day of calls.

It's exciting shit! Drop by and take a look.

 

It's near 9 Mile and Hilton in Ferndale - which is walking distance from 9 Mile and Woodward Ave.

 

I'll be there at 2pm onward if anyone wants to take a look. We just signed a deal with a tech collective to sell our offices to them, which means I can make the common area bigger - and make each spot larger for the same $$.

 

We're gaining members and it looks like this whole thing is going to actually work. Crazy talk, I know.

 

Anyone else interested? I'm getting plenty of calls from HAMB folks, but not a lot of posts here.

 

HOLY CRAP!! i've been wanting to do this for YEARS!! i just might be interested in getting involved even thought i'm not (YET) living in that area. i'm out there all the time.

 

Isn't it the shit?

Call me when you're out this way and I'll show you the place. It's incredible stuff.

 

We just launched a small site for this, kind of a digital business card. Nothing too special.

www.paperstreetmotors.com

 

This rules! Hey Andy, I sent an email with my cell # ..... Give me a buzz!

 

I don't believe I got your email, try calling me at 313-903-2963. I'm at my phone all the time; I'm actually going down to the shop now. Hit me up.

Also, We just developed a document to describe better what we're about and what we're up to.

Check it out: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57987/Paper Street Motors.pdf

 

Yeah we talked! That was me. We're suppose to meet around 1 er 2 in the afternoon on Monday to check the building out.

 

Sounds like a really cool idea, I hope it works out for everyone involved.

 

Still coming down?