Pictured left to right, are Kristin and Grant Holdsworth, Kris and Coltlee Birkeland and Lissette and Eric Bell at a March 2024 groundbreaking for the North Central Garage Club, which is scheduled to open in February (submitted photo).
It all began with a neighborly chat about some water pipes and a lament about never having enough garage space. The chat continued and the kernel of an idea blossomed into a ground-up, 11-unit garage condo development called the North Central Garage Club, built by three longtime area residents and set to open in February.
“Grant and I went to Back Alley CrossFit together,” recalled Dr. Kris Birkeland, president of Joint Ventures, LLC. When COVID hit, we were working out in my front driveway and I had a water leak and had been looking for a contractor because I needed a bid to submit it to insurance, and I was like, ‘Wait a second, don’t you do construction?’ and asked him to come look at the kitchen.”
Grant (Holdsworth) did indeed do construction; he’s the vice president of Holdsworth Construction.
“And about halfway through that,” Birkeland continued, “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea. We should build garages in the neighborhood.’ Everyone was building these 4,500-square-foot spec homes and then they build a 20 x 20 garage…you can’t even park cars in there. And he, without hesitation, said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
Six months went by, and the pair hadn’t pursued the idea, until Birkeland came across a couple of viable properties and got back in touch with Holdsworth. But Birkeland felt like they still needed another person on the team, “And I thought of Eric.” That’s Eric Bell, executive vice president at Kidder Matthews, who brought his experience in commercial real estate to the mix. Bell was immediately on board with the idea.
After that, everything came together quickly, and the trio purchased property at 1620 W. Hatcher Road. Then came the long process of rezoning and site planning, but they finally broke ground in March 2024. Fast forward to 2025 and they just finished pouring the driveway concrete and are expected to open sometime in February.
The property, which is just under an acre, boasts 11 condominium storage units – six of them 60 feet deep and five of them 40 feet deep – ranging in size from 1,044 to 1,643 square feet. Each masonry-built unit is complete with an insulated roof and powered garage doors, is separately metered and comes pre-plumbed for a restroom and HVAC and includes RV sewer and water hook-up. Owners will enjoy 24/7 controlled access to the site. But these units are not just for storage.
Located at 1620 W. Hatcher Road, units at the North Central Garage Club are nearing completion, and only a few are still available for purchase (submitted photo).
“Certainly, you can use it for storage,” said Holdsworth, “but I think the intention was to kind of have like-minded guys that have hobbies – whether it be hot rod cars or off-road toys or a boat – building that camaraderie around motor sports. Rather than just turn it into a place to store Christmas decorations, we kind of made it a larger scale so it could accommodate your outdoor toy lifestyle. Kind of a cool community thing.”
All the units are condo platted, Birkeland said, “Even though we are one property with one address, each of these will operate almost like a condo association. You will own your land; you will own that unit. That was always our desire. We’re not doing this to make money. We’re doing this to get garages that we can hang out in.”
Four units remain available for purchase, and Bell is taking the lead on marketing. And the trio hopes that their investment will help provide a spark for more positive, local development in the area.
“It’s not like we have one developer that’s going to be leasing space out and not caring about what’s going on in the neighborhood,” Bell said. “We’re bringing up to 11 different owners to the property, to Sunnyslope, to Hatcher. And most of them will probably be coming from the North Central area, to be close to home.
“We all live here and we are building this to occupy a unit. It’s a high-quality project and we’re really proud of it.”
For more information, contact Bell at 602-380-1990 or eric.bell@kidder.com.
