Storage question - I need your input

[blown motor]

As you know I sold the farm last December but continue to live here. There is a 48x96 machinery storage shed here with 40' cement floor which is badly cracked. The new owners have offered to remove the floor, put in drainage tile and insulation and pour a new floor. Then they would put in a ceiling, it's open truss now, put up a wall to divide the shed in two, replace the first sliding door with an overhead, insulate it and add a heat source. This would give me a 48x36 heated storage area for my cars. They want a commitment from me and I offered two years rent up front, non-refundable if I move out early. They will likely push me for three years and I would likely go for that, I don't mind living here for the most part and I would have great storage. The question is, what should the rent be?

[Rich G.]

That's the problem we face owning a few cars and finding a place to store them if we run out of room. I know someone who built a huge storage building that is climate controlled. He gets $175.00 a month just to let you store the car. You can't work on it and he has to move cars if you're car is being blocked by another car and you can't just go there whenever you want! . I think it's crazy but he has it completely full. Having 1/2 of a building by yourself is great. Hopefully you could get it at a reasonable price. I might be way off on price like i usually am but if you're going to be locked in for 3yrs would 1K a year be out of line?

[blown motor]

1K for year! Sign me up! Around here $300 for the winter is CHEAP per car. So at $600 for the year times 4 cars is $2400. Plus I could put my truck inside in the winter and not have to scrap the windshield. Plus I still have room for all my parts. There's 16' of pallet racking, a 20' work bench and a 14' ceiling so I could put lifts in if I wanted to. And there would still be extra room to work on projects, not car restoration ones.

[anlauto]

$1.00/sq/ft/month would be considered cheap. in my opinion.... Just start looking around at rentals in your area

Do yourself a favor....don't get settled in that place. Go find yourself a nice house on a couple of acres....three car garage on the house and a 100 X 40 shed in the back yard....

Start fresh 

[70 Challenger Lover]

I didn't realize there was such a market for classic car storage. Where I live, $300 a month for such a place would probably be cheap. I'd say more like $500 here if it was in an area not too remote.

[1 Wild R/T]

I didn't realize there was such a market for classic car storage. Where I live, $300 a month for such a place would probably be cheap. I'd say more like $500 here if it was in an area not too remote.

so $300 a month for 1700+ SF of heated storage??? I live is an agricultural area in a relatively cheap part of California & you wouldn't touch that space for less than $1000 a month without heat.. With heat probably another $200 a month....

[blown motor]

Some confusion here. I have paid $300 for the winter, six months, for one car. One year I paid $500. A place in Stratford is $750 but that place has fire and security alarms and cameras.
Keep in mind this is my neighbours that own it, and it's not considered commercial storage. They want me to stay because they know I won't wreck the place and then quit paying the rent and I won't call them to change a light bulb so they're willing to make it worth my while to stay. My house rent is cheap to the point that I am money ahead by renting and investing the money it would take to buy and own a place.
Alan, the place you describe would use up a large chunk of my money and I wouldn't have enough left to sustain myself. The ripple effect of Toronto housing prices are felt way out here.

[Brads70]

$1.00/sq/ft/month would be considered cheap. in my opinion.... Just start looking around at rentals in your area

Do yourself a favor....don't get settled in that place. Go find yourself a nice house on a couple of acres....three car garage on the house and a 100 X 40 shed in the back yard....

Start fresh 

No one to worry about but yourself/footloose and fancy free.... heck build a mancave in a shed type building.
Like Bill here....https://mortonbuildings.com/projects/hobby-building/4427   

Lots of idea's here.... https://mortonbuildings.com/projects/hobby-building

[Burdar]

Then they would put in a ceiling, it's open truss now,

I hope the trusses are designed with a heavy enough ceiling load.  Don't let them put up a ceiling without checking it.  You don't want to find out the hard way when your vehicles are stored inside!

[blown motor]

Good point @Burdar  They've had a contractor look at it but I will bring up the point.

@Brads70  I'm not  mancave guy. I've got beer, a recliner and a TV in the house.

[Plumcrazy72]

Then they would put in a ceiling, it's open truss now,

I hope the trusses are designed with a heavy enough ceiling load.  Don't let them put up a ceiling without checking it.  You don't want to find out the hard way when your vehicles are stored inside!

When building something here the snow load calculation they use is so overkill. You could probably park your cars on the roof and load it up with solar panels. My guess is they will strap it the opposite way of the trusses on 16" centers and it won't go anywhere. But as always wouldn't hurt to ask.

[Rich G.]

$500-1000. a month??? At what point to you just build a building and then own it? I guess having the property to put the garage on is usually the problem. To many toys and no place to put them is always tough.

[blown motor]

I was thinking the same thing about the snow load Adam. The shed was built in 79, back when we had heavy winters. Now we don't get much snow and I have a windbreak to protect it that wasn't there 40 years ago. Plus the ceiling might not weigh much more than all the stuff I have stored up in the trusses. 

[gzig5]

Around here the storage places with a roll up door that you could fit a car in were $140-$175/ month with a six month minimum for the winter storage.  That was not climate controlled. I lucked out and found a defunct factory a guy was storing boats, RVs, and cars in that was heated enough to keep it above freezing, which I'm sure was hard when it was -25 F.  Not the Shangri-lah, but was a bargain for $40/month.  I was surrounded by a Hellcat, 70 Cuda, Corvette, and a Viper.  Pretty good company.   I heard that is probably going up next year.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Im my area u would b lucky to find a garage to rent ... period! I had a killer deal 20 yards from my garage years ago. Thats where my Pontiac was. But people got old and died. Property was sold. I still have my key tho ..... hehehe