And now, for the car collector who has everything, including too many cars: the Taj Garage.
Obviously, a public parking structure or a dusty warehouse is the wrong place to store that 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL coupe you picked up for $350,000 at the Pebble Beach auction.
The solution could be a car condo.
Imagine a garage with a bathroom, a wet bar, no oil stains on the floor and security guards 24/7. With a concierge who will arrange your next service appointment. With a private rooftop club where you can share a bottle of wine and talk cars with fellow collectors.
All for the cost of a modest single-family home.
As the market for human housing falters, developers around the country are pushing ahead with plans to build homes for four-wheeled investments. The projects are being marketed as part-garage, part-home away from home, part-clubhouse for car nuts.
"This isn't something for the Jay Lenos who have their own [car] hangars at the Burbank airport," said Greg Anderson, automotive editor of the Robb Report, which chronicles the high life of the upper classes. Nor for Shaquille O'Neal, who can squeeze his 30-vehicle garage onto the grounds of his home in Florida.
"But if you have a dozen cars, or even five -- enough that you can't fit them into your garage -- it can make sense."
It does to Alex Dastmalchi, a resort developer who lives in the Newport Coast area of Newport Beach with a budding collection of classic and exotic cars that includes a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda 340 (complete with bumblebee stripes). He also has a $240,000 Ferrari F430 Spider and Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe on order.
"I'm scattered all over the place," said Dastmalchi, 37. "I've got a couple in my garage. I've got some in my driveway. I'm paying storage fees at an underground parking garage."
So Dastmalchi put a $50,000 deposit on two 650-square-foot car condos -- which will ultimately set him back $650,000 -- at Luxury on Main, a three-story, 80-unit development planned for a two-acre site near John Wayne Airport in Irvine.
Nicholas Patin, owner of the $30-million-plus project, envisions a high-end haven.
"We're designing a facility where collectors can congregate and store their special vehicles in a special place," said Patin, whose own collection includes a 1987 Ferrari Testarossa Gemballa and a 1956 Porsche Speedster.
