America’s Wildest and Most Expensive Garages
For most people, a garage that stores our vehicles and currently unused items is sufficient. Sure, from time to time we wish we could have something a little larger or different. Typically, people find the idea of expensive garages unnecessary.
What if you were incredibly wealthy, so wealthy that you could pretty much build whatever you wanted to, or make whatever additions you’d like to your home? Your garage space might look a little different. It might look a little like one of these amazingly expensive garages of the rich and famous across America.
From clothing designers like Ralph Lauren to celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, you probably won’t be surprised to find that some of the most incredible and expensive garages in the United States are built by people who can afford them.
More interesting is the personal touch that each celebrity or mogul brings into the design, from the choice of cars to the materials used, to special features like bachelor pads and wheel-shaped rotundas.
Ralph Lauren: Double RL Ranch, Colorado
Ralph Lauren is most famous for being a premier clothing designer of the Polo Brand. This brand is sold at department stores like Macy’s and Neiman Marcus. Did you also know he has an incredible car collection?
The awesome factor of his garage is not so much in the garage space itself, but the car collection. It’s a two-story space with high-quality garage insulation that holds dozens of expensive cars from Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Mercedes-Benzes. Ralph doesn’t just sit on his collection as if they’re a group of priceless paintings: he drives them, and often.
Each and every car has a story behind it, whether it was a racing car, or a special order designed by (you guessed it) Ralph himself. One time he walked into a Mercedes dealer and said he liked a particular vehicle, only he wanted it with a slightly different look. When they told Ralph that Mercedes did not manufacture a car that matched his vision, Ralph paid for a special one to be commissioned, just for his collection.
There are approximately 60 vehicles in Ralph’s garage, which has black floors, displaying the mostly red cars on white pedestals, surrounded by a classical facade of Greco-Roman architectures. The whole ensemble reportedly cost almost 2 million dollars.
John Travolta: Ocala, Florida
https://youtu.be/x-z3GN4Fbog
He’s the man you know from Saturday Night Fever and possibly Battlefield Earth…but outside of his acting career, he’s the owner of a huge mansion in Florida with a fifteen car garage. It’s all pretty standard for the rich and famous until you learn that Travolta’s garage also includes a docking space for a 747 (granted, not to rest inside the garage, but next to it).
There is a mile-and-a-half runway leading up to the house, big enough to create a safe landing space for his Gulfstream jet and Boeing 747. Although John emphatically views the house as a midcentury-style home, one could almost see it as an extension of the garage, and an airport for the two planes belonging to the actor turned philanthropist.
John loves to travel and is an official ambassador for Qantas Airlines. During the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he commanded a plane of doctors and aid workers that flew directly to the island. The home decor certainly shows John’s love of traveling, from the murals on the wall to the compass rose inlay in the wood floor of the entryway.
Jerry Seinfeld: New York City, New York
This comedian actor, most famous for his starring role as the lead actor and producer of Seinfeld, has an unbelievable, eye-popping garage and car collection in his New York home.
The 1.4 million dollar, 3-story complex that constitutes his garage contains around 150 vehicles, and at one point a record number of 46 Porsches (under one name). While he has auctioned off a few of the vehicles, he still has plenty to go around…more than three a day for every day of the week, each month.
The garage features floors of white terrazzo, custom cabinets, and even an elevator. Everything inside (the doors, the temperature, the lighting, just to name a few) is controlled by a touch screen, like something out of Star Trek.
The bachelor pad in the garage is bigger than most studio apartments at 844 square feet…big enough to accommodate a kitchenette, bathroom, pool table, and a garage theater. If you’re looking for a cool place to hang out and admire his Porsche collection, this bachelor pad is it (we’re still waiting for an invite).
Tom Gonzales: Lake Tahoe, California
You may not have heard of Tom Gonzales unless you’re in the business world, but he’s the former owner and founder of Commerce One, and e-commerce company and one of the most expensive garages. He sold his business so that he could focus on one of his passions (don’t we all wish we could do that), and that is collecting cars.
The vehicle collection (which also includes motorbikes) of his Lake Tahoe home is estimated at a value of 5 million dollars. The collection of bikes alone numbers at one hundred; they are brand new, not registered, and have never even been ridden.
The estate is beautiful, set in the scenic pinewood forests of Northern California’s premier destination for winter sports (and summer sports like mountain biking and hiking). The home itself is a beautiful work of craftsman architecture, wood, stone, and fine craftsmanship.
The garage itself, however, is underground. A massive elevator (disguised by a fake tree and boulder) lifts and lowers vehicles into the 6,000 square foot spaced of polished floors and vintage vehicles. It’s almost like entering the bat cave, only instead of one high-tech black urban tank, there are dozens of vehicles making up this multi-million dollar collection.
Craig Jackson: Scottsdale, Arizona
What else would you expect from the CEO of Barrett-Jackson (a company that auctions off vintage cars) than a state of the art garage housing a million-dollar car collection? The garage features a rotunda designed to look like the wheel of a ‘67 Shelby. It took two years to build this automobile palace of leather walls and terrazzo floors and a state of the art lighting system.
The garage also includes a shop and a private showroom. Jackson is a scrupulous businessman when it comes to the ethical component of running his billion-dollar vintage car business. He never bids against a potential client and prizes the transparency with which he runs his company. He even hired Deloitte and Touche to take a look at the books.
That hasn’t stopped him from amassing a 2 million dollar collection to fill his state of the art garage, including a 1966 Pontiac LeMans, which he still owns. The garage is hidden in the hills behind his desert home, creating a cave-like space with an almost futuristic interior for the assembly vintage cars he has collected, some of them as old as a 1932 Ford Custom Roadster.
Jackson is a big believer in keeping cars in good shape. Their batteries are connected to a power source, and he employs a one-man crew to exercise them periodically. Jackson himself takes the cars to rallies, shows, and on shopping trips with his partner Carolyn.
Turn to Danley’s for Your New Garage
If you’re interested in building your own version of one of these expensive garages, Danley’s has you covered. All of Danley’s garages are durable and made to last. Danley’s is the best company for detached garage construction building 100,000 garages in the Chicagoland area since 1959. Get a free quote right now.
