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Toronto learns to lift what it can't park
Garage retrofits turn a single spot into a double
Garry Marr
National Post
Thursday, October 25, 2007
There was no way Ted Jackson was going to park his vintage 1951 MG in the driveway.
So when his wife got a red convertible for her birthday, they had a problem. The Jack-sons have a one-car garage and did not want to expose the two expensive automobiles to the elements.
"The solution was to get a garage lift," said the retired computer systems operator. The garage in their modest Willowdale home now looks like something you might see in midtown Manhattan.
The MG and Toyota Solara are stacked tightly in the small garage, the MG on top courtesy of a hydraulic lift that takes Mr. Jackson less than two minutes to operate.
Hydraulic lifts have become the latest luxury item in parking-constricted Toronto. Vaughan-based Garage Living says it has been selling the products across the Greater Toronto Area, from suburbanites with summer sports cars to downtown dwellers who cannot figure out any other way to park that second vehicle.
"I wasn't about to park my MG out in the snow, and either was my wife going to park her car in the snow," said Mr. Jackson, who also has a Nissan Sentra that is forced to combat a Toronto winter in the driveway.
For about $3,800 with tax for the unit and about another $1,200 to retrofit his garage, his dilemma was solved. "The cost would have been excessive to make it into a two-car drive, and we have been living here for years and we don't want to move."
The first car, in this case the red Toyota convertible, has to be moved out of the garage from below the lift. The lift is then lowered and ramps are attached so the top car can smoothly transition out of the 7,000-pound contraption.
Parag Shah, president of Gar-age Living, says Mr. Jackson is among 60 people who bought the device this year. It might sound like small potatoes, but last year, in its first year on the market, he sold five.
"We're selling these things in two-car garages, too, for people who have four cars," Mr. Shah said. "We've sold really well across the GTA."
Surprisingly, suburbanites are almost as likely to need space for extra cars as their counterparts downtown. Ontario's Environment Minister, Lauren Broten, had one of the most prominent blowouts over space for vehicles when she tried last year at her Etobicoke home to build a two-storey garage for her family's four cars.
But the great untapped potential remains Toronto's booming condo market. "It's difficult for us to penetrate because you have to deal directly with a builder," Mr. Shah said, who started Garage Living three years ago when he realized the general need for space in Toronto and the untapped potential for the garage.
In addition to selling lifts for cars, Mr. Shah also turns garages into party rooms or second kitchens. It's all in the name of getting more bang for your buck.
In Manhattan, where a spot in the heart of the city can rent for $630 a month, cars are routinely stacked one on top of each other and bumper to bumper. Buying a parking spot in downtown Toronto can easily top $25,000, making space that much more precious.
"This is going to come to Toronto to the Beaches, the Lakeshore, anywhere downtown," Mr. Shah said. "The people living there all have more than one car. The density downtown keeps increasing. The number of people calling [about the lift] is incredible."
Toronto learns to lift what it can't park
Garage retrofits turn a single spot into a double
Garry Marr
National Post
Thursday, October 25, 2007
There was no way Ted Jackson was going to park his vintage 1951 MG in the driveway.
So when his wife got a red convertible for her birthday, they had a problem. The Jack-sons have a one-car garage and did not want to expose the two expensive automobiles to the elements.
"The solution was to get a garage lift," said the retired computer systems operator. The garage in their modest Willowdale home now looks like something you might see in midtown Manhattan.
The MG and Toyota Solara are stacked tightly in the small garage, the MG on top courtesy of a hydraulic lift that takes Mr. Jackson less than two minutes to operate.
Hydraulic lifts have become the latest luxury item in parking-constricted Toronto. Vaughan-based Garage Living says it has been selling the products across the Greater Toronto Area, from suburbanites with summer sports cars to downtown dwellers who cannot figure out any other way to park that second vehicle.
"I wasn't about to park my MG out in the snow, and either was my wife going to park her car in the snow," said Mr. Jackson, who also has a Nissan Sentra that is forced to combat a Toronto winter in the driveway.
For about $3,800 with tax for the unit and about another $1,200 to retrofit his garage, his dilemma was solved. "The cost would have been excessive to make it into a two-car drive, and we have been living here for years and we don't want to move."
The first car, in this case the red Toyota convertible, has to be moved out of the garage from below the lift. The lift is then lowered and ramps are attached so the top car can smoothly transition out of the 7,000-pound contraption.
Parag Shah, president of Gar-age Living, says Mr. Jackson is among 60 people who bought the device this year. It might sound like small potatoes, but last year, in its first year on the market, he sold five.
"We're selling these things in two-car garages, too, for people who have four cars," Mr. Shah said. "We've sold really well across the GTA."
Surprisingly, suburbanites are almost as likely to need space for extra cars as their counterparts downtown. Ontario's Environment Minister, Lauren Broten, had one of the most prominent blowouts over space for vehicles when she tried last year at her Etobicoke home to build a two-storey garage for her family's four cars.
But the great untapped potential remains Toronto's booming condo market. "It's difficult for us to penetrate because you have to deal directly with a builder," Mr. Shah said, who started Garage Living three years ago when he realized the general need for space in Toronto and the untapped potential for the garage.
In addition to selling lifts for cars, Mr. Shah also turns garages into party rooms or second kitchens. It's all in the name of getting more bang for your buck.
In Manhattan, where a spot in the heart of the city can rent for $630 a month, cars are routinely stacked one on top of each other and bumper to bumper. Buying a parking spot in downtown Toronto can easily top $25,000, making space that much more precious.
"This is going to come to Toronto to the Beaches, the Lakeshore, anywhere downtown," Mr. Shah said. "The people living there all have more than one car. The density downtown keeps increasing. The number of people calling [about the lift] is incredible."
