Fellow car lovers often approached Rick and Tony Principe, a father-and-son duo in commercial real estate, about finding high-end homes for their private collections.

Such facilities didn’t exist.

And so, to meet the demand, the Principes launched Finish Line Auto Club in 2006. The concept that Rick Principe describes as “a country club for car collectors” began with the sale of customizable garage condominiums to those who could afford the $1 million-plus price tag.

“Many owners have huge collections elsewhere, but they elected to buy into the Finish Line concept because of the social aspect and the ability to share their passion,” Rick Principe said. “If you go to any one of our Finish Line projects, you’ll find that not only do these collectors have some of the most valuable car collections in the world, but that they also have more cars than what they keep at Finish Line. They rotate them in and out for different events.”

Like a residential condo, ownership at Finish Line includes the condo and an interest in the common areas.

Condos range in size from 1,000 to 6,500 square feet. They can house a minimum of five or six vehicles or combined to create larger units, providing enough space to store and show vehicles in a 24/7 museum-level secure, gated facility with on-site staff.  All the units come with fire sprinklers and exhaust fans.

The shared social amenities include clubhouses, lounges, game rooms and event spaces, which are site-specific to its three Southern California facilities.

Finish Line’s journey began in the Principes’ hometown of Westlake Village.

They bought, cleared out and renovated a 40,000-square-foot, 28-unit business park in 2005.

“We put a condo map on it and sold them out as industrial spaces, but about 80 to 90% of them went to car people,” son Tony Principe said. “We thought, maybe this is something we should pursue.”

In 2011, the Principes bought 7 acres in Calabasas and spent eight years designing and obtaining entitlements from the city of Los Angeles. They completed the 31,000-square-foot boutique facility with a clubhouse in October, pre-selling 95% of its 19 car condos to collectors.

“That was a long-term project, and while we were designing that, we wound up buying a former Volkswagen regional headquarters building on 5 acres in the heart of Westlake Village,” Tony Principe said.

Purchased in 2016 for $12 million, the original property spanned 60,000 square feet with a 27,000-square-foot office building, which was then sold to a car collector.

The Principes developed Finish Line in the existing space, completing two phases of construction, as buyers bought the car condos before the project was even finished. Phase three will bring Westlake Village up to 88,000 square feet and a total of 40 car condos.

“Finish Line really started to gain some horsepower and attention, and so we directed our focus down to Orange County,” Tony Principe said.

In 2020, they bought an 80,000-square-foot building for $21 million next to the John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa. After renovating and redeveloping the building, it opened in 2021.

Finish Line completed its second phase in October, expanding it into a 103,000-square-foot amenity-rich facility with 41 car condos, a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse and a 2,500-square-foot rooftop lounge overlooking the airport.

“We try to take advantage of the location where we’re building in and design the project around that,” said Tony Principe. “Westlake backs up to some of the best driving roads in the world, with Mulholland (Drive) and Decker (Road) and Kanan (Road), so that one is a very open-air type of facility, and we’re getting ready to break ground on phase 3 there.”

Plans for facilities in Palm Desert and Scottsdale are simultaneously in the works.

Southern California News Group caught up with the Principes to talk cars, luxury car storage and where they see the vision taking them. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

“We try to take advantage of the location where we’re building in and design the project around that,” said Tony Principe. “Westlake backs up to some of the best driving roads in the world, with Mulholland (Drive) and Decker (Road) and Kanan (Road), so that one is a very open-air type of facility, and we’re getting ready to break ground on phase 3 there.”

Plans for facilities in Palm Desert and Scottsdale are simultaneously in the works.

Southern California News Group caught up with Rick and Tony Principe to talk cars, their luxury car storage and social club concept and where they see the vision taking them. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Do both of you collect cars?

Tony: My dad has a larger collection. I’m more of an enthusiast than a collector.

Q: Before Finish Line, did you store your cars in a warehouse or at home?

Rick: I was storing my cars in a couple of garages, but I was really interested in creating a bigger collection. I took my tennis court and converted it into car storage, and joined a tennis club down the street. When my friends came over, I had all my cars together in one place and space to entertain.

Tony: My experience was different. I had my cars in warehouses I rented, and I also stored a motorhome, Jeeps and dirt bikes at a large indoor RV storage facility. I hated it. I felt like people were getting inside my things and touching them.

Q: How did you develop the concept for Finish Line?

Tony: We realized people wanted to own their space versus rent. If they owned it, they would invest in it and customize it — trick it out. But we also wanted to create a country club environment that made them feel part of a community of like-minded enthusiasts. It’s social, it’s events — there’s a lot more to it than that — but the ownership was one of the catalysts that really set it apart at the time, because when we did this, nothing like this existed. Now people are doing them around the country.

Q: Were there elements or concepts from other sources that influenced your vision?

Tony: It came out of a need. At the time, my dad kept his collection at his home, and within that space was a lounge — like a bar and a seating area — where he could have people over to spend time. For somebody who maybe had a smaller collection like me — a handful of cars — I didn’t want to dedicate an entire space in my garage or warehouse to a lounge area, so we thought, Why don’t we create a common-area clubhouse and patios where people could congregate?

Q: When you launched Finish Line, how did you build trust with collectors? 

Tony: When we started our first Finish Line, there was nothing else like it. It was an exclusive car condo project. But people saw we weren’t just developers, we were also garage owners at that facility.

We run, operate, manage, curate and participate in events. We’re the ones leading the drives.

We’ve built up our management and staff to a level with the Four Seasons, so people feel their experience is elevated the minute they walk in the door. That’s a long-term business versus a transactional real estate play.

Q: How much does a car condo cost, and what does the price include? 

Tony: In Southern California, they start at $1 million and go up to about $4 million. That delivers them a nice finished shell with polished concrete floors, finished walls and automatic garage doors.O

From there, the owners come in and they’ll invest to customize it.

Q: Are the re-sales handled in-house?

Tony: We’ve handled 95% of re-sales because we have a Finish Line realty service, and we’ve sold about 20 or so over the years. The average appreciation rate on those has been about 25% per year, so it’s a strong appreciation. It’s all about what you’re delivering and the barriers to entry.

We spend a lot of money building these places for collectors who are used to a certain lifestyle.

Rick: Car collectors also look at this a little bit differently. I always use the analogy: if, all of a sudden, you had the Hope Diamond and needed a place to store it, you wouldn’t be concerned about the cost. You just want to make sure it’s safe and secure, and that you can access it anytime.

These car collectors want these car units because when they go to auctions and other places, they want to be able to buy collector cars, invest in them and have a place to put them when they bring them back, again, knowing they’ll be be safely stored. It’s their passion, and this completes it.

Q: You mentioned a future facility in Palm Desert. Are there any plans to expand into other parts of California?

Tony: We don’t want to stay static. We recognize that this started as a storage option and has grown into more of a social club. The more energy we put into the social aspect, the more interest we get from buyers.  We decided with Scottsdale that we would take it to the next level.

Our goal is to get that developed and then roll it out around the country, in Dallas, Nashville, Miami, New York, Vegas and here, again, in California.

Scottsdale will be a 200,000-square-foot facility with 67 car condos and a 16,000-square-foot clubhouse with a coffee shop, meeting rooms and a full club upstairs with a bar, lounge, food and a rooftop patio. We’re also integrating a 60,000-square-foot car storage building into that facility, which will have individual car storage and events.

We’re continuing to build on the experiences we have to really enhance them so that people who are coming to Finish Line aren’t just there to store their cars.

They’re plugging into a community with reciprocal rights to all the clubs, so that if you’re a member of Orange County and you want to come up and grab a coffee in Westlake or you’re out in Palm Desert or Scottsdale, you’re welcome there.

Q: Do you have to be a condo owner to enjoy the events and some of the other amenities you mentioned?

Tony: Generally, the answer is yes. We do host some events, and we’ll invite some collectors from around that particular region, but for all intents and purposes, Scottsdale will be the first time we integrate an actual outside membership aside from the car condo owners. Maybe they don’t need a garage or they’re from somewhere that doesn’t warrant one, so, from that standpoint, they can join and be part of it.

But right now, it’s purely, you own a garage and have 24/7 access to the facility and all the services.

Rick and Tony Principe. 

Ages: Tony is 59. “I’ll never tell,” says Rick.

Hometown: Westlake Village

Favorite car in their collections: “Whatever that car is that day,” Rick said.

Bonding over cars: “We’ve always done stuff together, whether it was racing go-karts, doing rallies, track days,” Tony said, adding that his father “customized his own cars, like many people do, when he was younger and I did the same thing. So, we’ve always had a common interest in it.”