Challenge:
Choose an ideal commercial garage door that would complement a new luxury vehicle storage condominium’s look and design, as well as properly seal and secure each door opening while providing a sufficient R-value for conditioned interior spaces.
Solution:
30 custom-width Amarr® 2432 – 2” Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors (14’ high x 16’ 4” wide) capable of handling a 130 mph wind load, with 9.4 R-value polystyrene foam insulation, as well as black exterior and white interior finishes (the same sectional steel door material is used for the door headers that each include four Amarr 24” x 12” doubleinsulated acrylic windows with black frames).
Results:
A color-coordinated commercial sectional door that effectively seals and secures each door opening (based on its customwidth design accommodation and high Rvalue) to help air-conditioned luxury vehicle storage condominiums remain cool and comfortable inside regardless of any extreme heat outside.
Application:
Environment:
Luxury Vehicle Storage Condominiums
Location:
Jacksonville, FL
See more at
Fortress Garage – Jacksonville, FL
If you are fortunate enough to own one or more collectible vintage automobiles, a luxury RV, or even a high-end watercraft, you might not have the room or even want to store any of them at home.
One option is to store them in an off-site self-storage garage. But for such high-value “toys”, that may not be the ideal solution.
Instead of a run-of-the-mill self-storage facility, what if you could store and secure your treasured vehicles in your own personal climate-controlled “man-cave”, complete with a private bathroom and second-story mezzanine, all with a “sky’s the limit” potential for customizing the space any way you want?
That’s exactly what Fortress Garage is all about in Jacksonville, Fla., the first of its kind luxury vehicle storage condominium facility in the state.
While similar luxury vehicle storage condominiums are growing in popularity in California and Colorado, Summit Construction & Management Group’s owner, Charles “Chip” Cordes, is on a personal mission to bring them to Florida.
Cordes, whose company specializes in selfstorage development and charter schools, is so confident in his state’s market for luxury vehicle storage condominiums that he’s already planning to build additional Fortress Garages throughout northern and southern Florida.
Unlimited customization potential
“After several decades as part-owner of a sectional overhead garage door business, I finally retired. But then in 2010, I had enough of that and started my new company,” Cordes explained. While planning to build new offices for his business, he also wanted a place to store his car collection as well as a friend's collection, both of which include vintage Porsches, Ferraris, Corvettes, and more.
“Our high-end buyers are typically retired, selfmade entrepreneurs and business owners who have spent their lives making money and collecting toys that are now scattered about in various locations,” Cordes pointed out. “Instead of throwing money away on self-storage rental space, they can now purchase their own luxury vehicle storage condominium, customize it however they want, and have a place to hang out with their fellow car enthusiasts.”
Cordes said that one unique storage condominium features a Texaco theme complete with a salvaged wood floor, vintage signage, and other antique Texaco memorabilia.
The 1,000 square-foot condominiums (22’ wide x 46’ deep) are located in a secured, two-story horseshoe-shaped structure that condominium owners can drive through from one end to the other.
Complete with castellation design elements to convey a “fortress” look, the front side of the property houses Cordes’ new business offices, a dedicated club room, and utility space. The rest of the structure is home to 30 individual storage condominiums with 15 on each side of the horseshoe.
Up to 10-car capacity
Each condominium is already plumbed and wired for owners to add an optional bathroom. Steel structure inside the walls also provides owners the option to install a high weight capacity mezzanine that can provide an additional 500 square feet of usable space on the second story.
If an owner should decide to install a lift inside their condominium, a mezzanine could easily handle the weight of multiple cars. Each condominium can accommodate up to six cars on the floor, but up to 10 with the right kind of lift, Cordes noted.
Fortress Garage’s interior “courtyard” contains a checkerboard pattern of hand-laid black and white cement pavers designed to convey the look of a racetrack winner’s circle.
While the condominiums feature their own personal entrance door, vehicles enter each unit through one of 30 Amarr® 2432 – 2” HeavyDuty Steel Sectional Doors. Each seven section door is 14’ high x 16’ 4” wide and attached to a 3” angle-mounted high-lift track.
Capable of handling a 130 mph wind load, the sectional doors feature polystyrene foam insulation with a 9.4 R-value, an Amarr Commercial Black exterior finish along with a white interior finish, and pre-painted black torsion springs.
Unique Amarr header solution
Instead of using concrete for the door headers, each four-section high door header is made of the same Amarr sectional steel door material and Amarr Commercial Black finish. Also, each header features four Amarr 24” x 12” doubleinsulated acrylic windows with black frames.
Cordes explained that he wanted to keep the windows up high on the headers instead of the doors for security purposes. The windows allow natural light to penetrate the condominiums and add architectural interest to the courtyard space.
Cordes further added that he chose to construct the headers from the sectional door material instead of concrete for several reasons:
- they’re much lighter than concrete.
- they feature the same two inches of polystyrene insulation to help keep the condominium’s conditioned space cool (versus eight inches of concrete that only provides a 1.35 R-value).
- they make the doors appear even more impressive and eliminated what could have resulted in a drab, industrial look in the courtyard area.
In addition to the Fortress Garage courtyard interior’s black and gray color scheme is a conspicuous black and green striping that runs along the center columns between each sectional door. The Porsche Acid Green stripe is a tribute to Cordes’ son who passed away in 2019, a race car driver whose favorite color was also featured on his racing suit.
High R-value prevents heat transfer
“The sectional doors’ high R-value really helps to prevent cooling loss and keep cooling costs down,” said Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Amarr Company. “On an especially hot day, the black door exterior will almost burn to the touch while the white interior finish remains cool.”
“The sectional doors’ high R-value
really helps to prevent cooling loss
and keep cooling costs down.”
– Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager,
Amarr Company
He added, “The Amarr 2432’s high R-value also provided the flexibility of using a dark exterior door color without the risk of transferring heat inside the condominiums, a concept that also works well for cold storage applications.”
If Cordes wasn’t busy enough with all of his Fortress Garage project’s details, he also included a special wash station for cars “The sectional doors’ high R-value really helps to prevent cooling loss and keep cooling costs down.” – Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Amarr Company 4 returning from showing off at Cars & Coffee and other special events.
“The Amarr 2432’s high R-value also
provided the flexibility of using a
dark exterior door color without the
risk of transferring heat inside the
condominiums, a concept that also
works well for cold storage
applications.”
– Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales
Manager, Amarr Company
The wash station provides special foam to lift any dirt and grime from cars’ surfaces and undercarriages. Once the cars are rinsed with regular water, owners can then switch to filtered de-ionized water that will dry in the sun spot-free. The same water system is also used to clean the Amarr sectional doors and door headers to keep their surfaces clean.
Amarr to the rescue
Cordes pointed out that while building his initial Fortress Garage, he first approached another sectional commercial door company. He quickly found out that they couldn’t accommodate his request for a custom door size that would properly seal his tilt-up concrete door openings. He needed an extra two inches on each side of a standard 16-foot opening due to the tilt-up concrete’s chamfered inside edges.
“I knew that what I wanted could be done, but the manufacturer initially wouldn’t even allow their engineers on the phone for a conference call involving 30 doors,” Cordes emphasized, adding that the manufacturer finally told him that such a custom request would involve too many long-term issues and was not part of the manufacturer’s standard 18-foot door width offering. “Bottomline, I didn’t need an 18-foot door.”
“Once I contacted Amarr, they said that they could easily accommodate the custom door width I needed and that they do it all of the time for other customers,” Cordes related. “I thought, what a relief to actually talk to a garage door manufacturer who has already thought of the problem that I was dealing with. From the first phone call, Amarr understood everything I was encountering.”
“I thought, what a relief to actually
talk to a garage door manufacturer
who has already thought of the
problem that I was dealing with.
From the first phone call, Amarr
understood everything I was
encountering.”
– Charles “Chip” Cordes, Owner/Builder, Summit
Construction & Management Group
He added, “As a business owner, I fully understand that when you can fix someone’s problem with a custom solution and make them happy, you’re going to end up getting they’re standard product business as well in the long run.”
Torsion spring mounting challenge
Another solution that Amarr provided concerned 6” duplex torsion springs required to handle the doors’ size and thickness. The “The Amarr 2432’s high R-value also provided the flexibility of using a dark exterior door color without the risk of transferring heat inside the condominiums, a concept that also works well for cold storage applications.” – Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Amarr Company “I thought, what a relief to actually talk to a garage door manufacturer who has already thought of the problem that I was dealing with. From the first phone call, Amarr understood everything I was encountering.” – Charles “Chip” Cordes, Owner/Builder, Summit Construction & Management Group 5 springs couldn’t be attached to the sectional door headers due to lack of proper structure.
Instead, the springs were anchored to the end bearing plates attached to the concrete columns versus anchoring at the center of the header. The cable drums were placed to the outside of the track with the cables attaching to low headroom outside hook-up bottom brackets to raise and lower the doors.
“Essentially, each door is configured similar to a double-track low headroom system, but it’s actually high-lifted,” Cordes explained. “That way, each spring’s torque is supported off of the concrete columns and not the center of the header sections.”
“Amarr knew exactly what they were
talking about from start to finish,
shipped out everything perfect the
first time and all went together as
planned.”
– Charles “Chip” Cordes, Owner/Builder, Summit
Construction & Management Group
Cordes summed up his first Fortress Garage project experience with Amarr and the company’s overall flexibility, which included:
- “Manufacturing the doors we needed for the job site conditions, including different exterior and interior colors.”
- “Working with us on the torsion spring design so that the springs could be mounted without using the header as support, which is typically standard in the garage door industry.”
- “Making sure everything shipped correctly the first time.”
- “Helping to provide a list of and arrange for the right type of commercial (and not residential) door installers that knew what they were doing.”
Cordes added, “We had also planned to use LiftMaster Jackshaft Operators for the doors mounted to the wall. Knowing in advance what I was going to do and without even asking, Amarr even sent an additional bearing plate that’s mounted outside the motor’s gear to keep the shaft from ever bending in the future due to the motor’s torque.”
He also mentioned “Amarr’s traffic department was phenomenal with communicating when the delivery trucks would arrive from their distribution center,” and said that the commercial group that installed the doors was excellent.
“I’ll never buy another door from
anyone but Amarr as I move forward
with my Fortress Garage projects.”
– Charles “Chip” Cordes, Owner/Builder, Summit
Construction & Management Group
Architect Resources available
To obtain detailed information on Amarr 2432 – 2” Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors, please visit Amarr Commercial Doors, or contact us at 800-503-DOOR (3667).
And to learn more about how we work with architects, please visit Architect Resources, which also includes BIM models for Revit, SketchUp models, CAD details, architectural specifications, information about the company's commitment to sustainability, and more.