CARPORT CONVERSION NEWS

This afternoon I received an email from our Safety Committee who met with three contractors in regards to the recent inquiry of converting our carports into garages. Here is the email:

Just an update, I met with 3 different contractors this weekend regarding the carport to garage conversions. All of them told me that although there is a possibility in erecting garages only one of the companies was willing to do a conversion instead of a complete rebuild. Each contractor had the same concerns: the amount of space we have and cost.

The first contractor I met with told me that he has done similar projects like this so he was very familiar with what we were looking for. He told me that he would surround the existing carport structures with cemented walls and an automatic aluminum roll-up door. The garages would utilize the existing roof which would be reinforced during the conversion. He told me that there would be two drawbacks; the length of the garages wouldn't accommodate long trucks, and the garages would have to be two car garages. Meaning that homeowners would need to share their space. The garages would be separated at the six inch beam that runs in between every two cars. The separation would be made of two by fours and drywall. The only internal work that would be done on the garages is the separation and minor electrical work to run power for the door and a light. The architectural design of the garages would match the existing Spanish style design found in the Monterey Villas. It would take him about four months to start, allowing him time to receive permits and get a design together. The construction would be done in stages and take six months total. Total Cost would not exceed $650,000 about $2,500 per unit.

The second contractor started off by telling me that he hopes we have a lot of money because this project would cost millions. He said that he would need to demolish the existing structure and rebuild to extend the garages a couple feet and to proceed with a preliminary design he would need about $5,000. I slowed him down before he started demanding any more money and asked him if he could give me a ballpark price for the project. He said that in total he saw the project running about $4,000,000, and it would take around 18months to complete. Before he left he asked why we just wouldn't put in security gates. I told him the reason which I've heard, we need 60ft of clearance to install the gates. He said, as far as he knows its only 21ft. and we shouldn't have to remodel too much and a project like that would only cost about $250,000 for 4 gates. I'm going to look into this.

The third contractor said that he did not do conversions and would only be interested in the project if he was able to rebuild it from the ground up. He stated that he would need to relocate the garages for space and we would loose about half of the free parking spaces throughout Monterey Villas. He gave me a lot of construction jargon and said that he saw the price somewhere around $2,900,000.

According to the first contractors' quote the conversion does seem like a possibility. Personally I thought all the quotes we'd receive would be in the millions. It would be very interesting to see how the board approaches this. Where would all the money come from? Would we see an increase in our monthly dues? Would the converter be willing to put up some more cash to sale the rest of the units? How do you now that we got some numbers back? Would you like the idea of sharing a garage with one of your neighbors?

As much as I'd like the conversion to take place I still think the garages would be too small. We appreciate the quick update Safety Committee, keep it coming.