I’m going to say two words to you. Just two words.
“Parking spaces.”
There is a big future in parking spaces and now’s your chance to get in on the ground floor according to one real estate agent who claims the value of a hard-to-find spot to store your sports utility vehicle is destined to go up, and if you’ve got $185,000 to spare, you can invest in a condo your car can call its own in upscale Cobble Hill.
“I sell a lot of townhouses and one of the first question people ask is ‘Where am I going to park my car?’ ” said Lindsay Barrett, who has 130 spots to unload for the new Parking Club on Pacific and Court streets. “People don’t want to pay $6 million for a house and not have anywhere to park their car.”
The hefty price tag includes a deed to the one of the guarded garage’s spots and membership to valet service Luxe, which brings people their cars within a coverage area that includes Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill, surprisingly, and up to 125th Street in Manhattan.
The valet service opens up the garage to people who live in other tony neighborhoods nearby but can’t be bothered to make the trek to their cars, said Barrett.
“It would make this garage is an appealing amenity for somebody who lives in Park Slope or Dumbo,” she said. “They wouldn’t say this garage is too far away.”
Along with pick-up and drop-off service, Luxe membership also includes such Porsche pampering as refueling, washes, monthly maintenance, and yearly registration inspections.
Drivers must pay taxes on their spots, between $800 and $920 a year, and pay a common charge of $140 per month, just like condo owners.
But all the money is being well-spent, according to Barett, who says cash-rich car owners are making a sound investment that will only go up over time, as parking becomes more and more difficult to find in a city whose population is exploding.
“You are gong to get the escalated value of the parking spot,” she said. “Parking is a scarce resource that’s getting scarcer everyday.”
There’s already a luxury parking garage in Park Slope, but the Cobble Hill iteration is the first in the city to offer valet service. Prices start at $185,000 for a spot, but can go up to $230,000 for one of the garage’s coveted ground-floor spots because, as they say in real estate, “Location, location, location.”
So will you think about it? Will you think about it? Shh. Enough said. That’s a deal.
