The Wall Street Journal March 2024
Is This $1.2 Million Entertaining Space ‘The Coolest Man Cave Ever?’
Inside a Florida car condo, which includes a ground floor area that can hold five of the owner’s 20 cars at a time
Suzanne Lovell, a Chicago-based designer, had already worked with her clients—who are in their late 50s and work in the boating industry—on a condo in Chicago and a 15,000-square-foot penthouse in Naples, Fla., when the husband called with a special request. “He had just purchased a car condo about 5 miles from their Naples residence,” Lovell says. “And he asked me to design the coolest man cave ever.”
The car condo is in a gated community, but instead of front doors, there are garage doors. The units don’t have bedrooms. Instead, there is generous space for cars and for entertaining—complete with bathrooms and wet bars—making a car condo the perfect place to host a Formula One viewing party. The double unit, which the couple bought in 2021 and would cost about $3 million in today’s market, is about 3,400 square feet. The second-floor entertaining space overlooks the ground floor, which has space for five of the owner’s 20 cars, including a 1957 Porsche Speedster, a 1962 Ferrari 250GT and a 1961 Facel Vega. Along with multiple seating areas, the entertainment floor also has a race simulator and a room for the owner’s custom slot car track. The couple spent about $1.2 million to outfit the space. Cars not included!
By Laura Hine
Photography by Eric Piasecki/OTTO with stylist Anita Sarsidi
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