A Sarasota-based venture has closed $15 million in project financing to develop a facility that combines climate-controlled automotive storage with traditional country-club amenities. Construction is scheduled to begin this quarter on a site that will house up to 200 collector vehicles alongside dining, event space, and member lounges.
The project follows the Club Motorsports model—vertically integrated facilities where vehicle storage becomes the anchor tenant for broader hospitality operations. The Sarasota site will offer 24-hour secured access, detailing bays, and concierge vehicle transport, with memberships reportedly priced between $25,000 and $45,000 annually depending on storage allocation and social-tier access. The developer has not disclosed the equity-to-debt structure but confirmed the full capital stack is committed.
This matters because the collector-car storage category is absorbing capital that once flowed exclusively into marina slips and private aviation hangars. Wealth advisors now regularly field inquiries about storage as an asset-protection line item, particularly in no-income-tax states where clients are consolidating physical presence. Florida recorded 34,000 new high-net-worth relocations in 2023, and Sarasota County alone saw $8.2 billion in luxury real estate transactions over the past eighteen months. A meaningful percentage of those buyers own multiple vehicles worth six figures each and lack secure, climate-stable facilities within thirty minutes of their primary residences.
The dual-use format also addresses utilization anxiety among private-club operators. Traditional country clubs face thinning membership pipelines as younger allocators reject golf-centric models. Automotive clubs solve for frequency: members visit storage facilities two to four times per month on average, compared to 1.2 visits per month at legacy social clubs. Higher visit cadence drives incremental food-and-beverage revenue and creates more surface area for upsell into event rentals and sponsored track days.
Operators should monitor whether the Sarasota project secures an early membership waitlist before construction completes, and whether initiation fees are structured as refundable deposits or pure revenue. If the developer moves 60 percent of inventory before opening, expect three to five similar announcements in Naples, Palm Beach, and Scottsdale by mid-2026. Also worth watching: whether any of the founding members are dealer principals or auction-house stakeholders, which would signal vertical integration into consignment and private sales.
The Sarasota County planning board approved final site permits in late March, and the developer has indicated a sixteen-month build timeline. That puts the facility online in late summer 2026, directly ahead of the Amelia Island and Pebble Beach auction cycles.