When Your 12V Shop Rent is $16K a Month

Feature Story:

One of the last car audio shops standing in the heart of high-rent New York City, has had to make some changes.

Autocraft pays $16,000/month for a 4,000 square foot shop and does not do volume sales.

To make rent, the shop on 46^th Street near 12^th Avenue, expanded into full auto restoration. Forty percent of the business is car audio, safety, radar and electronics.  Sixty percent is now full automotive restoration.  Total sales are about $800,000 to $1 million in a new location that opened about 18 months ago.

“Car stereo fell off in  around 2005 or 2006… We had to change the scope of our business.  That’s when we got into different fabrication and performance,” said owner Stefano Loria.

“We’re probably the only custom shop left in New York City.  All the garages moved out of the city.  We’re the ‘Last of the Mohicans’ as they say,” he added.   He’s not wrong. With NY City rents skyrocketing gas stations and auto mechanic garages have been snapped up to be converted into high rise buildings.

Autocraft sees a lot of high end an exotic cars, and “every day drivers,” which for Manhattan consist of BMWs, Range Rovers and Mercedes-Benz SUVs and sedans. A large part of sales are in custom radar detectors, but also custom fabrication to make car audio systems look like they came from the factory.

The shop usually works on two major projects at a time plus a few small jobs a day like wraps and window tint or a car radio and speakers.

When we first called Autocraft, there was a McLaren 720s in the shop, a $380K car.  It received a full paint protection wrap, complete ESCORT MAX 360ci with laser jamming and window tinting with ceramic heat rejection film for a $16,000 job.

A second project was rebuilding a 1963 hot rod Buick Riviera in a frame-off restoration.

When we called a second time there was a Porsche GT3  Special edition in the bay plus a Ford 150 Shelby special edition.  The truck was getting an increase in horse power (from 750 hp from the factory). ECU chip tuning, new exhaust, a sound system upgrade and window tint.

It’s not only the high rents that make New York a bit unique.  Customers are in a rush and  want everything ‘yesterday.’  So the shop learned how to do as much prep work as possible before a car comes in.  “We’ve fine tuned it, getting a job done that might take other shops a little longer.  Our new shop is really efficient.  We have a wood shop, upholstery shop upstairs, we have a lift, air lines.  You don’t have to drag wires across the shop.  We spent about 8 months building this place.  We didn’t even work [during that time].  We took a light salary to survive.”

Loria manages the shop and also installs. Then there’s a lead installer and like many shops, he’s looking for another installer.

While most customers rely on the shop’s suggestions for what to install, he still keeps products in stock.  “A lot of times when they come in with their own system design and it doesn’t work…The only time they pick out stuff is usually on the head unit. On radar they choose from K40 or Escort,” he said.

The shop carries brands including Alpine, Kenwood, JL Audio, Morel, Hertz, Audison, Escort and K40.

“I started when I was 20 years old when I came to the City.  It was decadent..the streets were laden with drug dealers and prostitutes. Then all of a sudden, in early 2000 [Mayor] Giuliani came into office and he launched overnight a cop on every corner, cleaned up the prostitutes, the drugs; and that led a path to art galleries to move in….”

His rent that started at $2,000 a month went to $6 to $10 to $14K and then the building was sold for $20 million and he was told to move.

Loria found a place finally far to the west side of the city in mid town. “We are the only shop left,” he said.

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