Chris Allen, a Jenkintown resident, professional race car driver, and owner/operator of Cannonball Storage in Huntingdon Valley, is gearing up for the grand opening of a “cathedral for cars” in Fishtown.
Allen grew up in Huntingdon Valley and graduated from Academy of the New Church. He’s been competitively racing cars since college.
“It’s one of my passions. After college I dabbled in higher-level international competitions,” Allen told Glenside Local. “Eventually I got into the professional-level series. In 2023, I got on the podium at 24 Hours of Daytona, which is the largest endurance race in the United States. It was badass.”
Allen has raced the Pirelli GT4 America, Weathertech LMP3, CODE Class 11, and additional race circuits around the world. In January, he made his Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup debut after teaming up with JTR Motorsports. Cannonball Club Philadelphia served as the team’s sponsor.
He still races whenever he can.
“Whatever I can get my hands on,” he said, noting that he also has a background in commercial real estate.
Now an owner of a vehicle-centric social club, Allen said he fell into the hospitality business through his large industrial mixed-use space in Huntingdon Valley.
“One of our units was vacant and I was doing a lot of racing at the time. I had a car collection of my own, so I decided to rent the space for myself and have a little hobby company,” he said. “It became my main office around 2019. Before you knew it, that facility filled up.”
Cannonball Storage is described as “an automotive social club with safe, secure vehicle storage.” The facility currently houses roughly 60 high-end classic cars.
“As the pandemic wore on, people were buying cars sight unseen off of the internet, hiding things from their wives, all kinds of stuff was going on. We had roughly 80 collector cars during that time. I like the people that do stuff with their cars so I started hosting events. It was such a cool backdrop, even for people who weren’t necessarily into vehicles,” he said.
Cannonball Storage’s growing success led him to explore expansion opportunities in Philadelphia and beyond, with the eventual goal of a membership-based club in an accommodating lounge-type environment.
“I started to look around the country for organizations who were doing something similar. I found that the car storage always came first, then the social. I didn’t like that,” he said. “For me, the emphasis is the social. I wanted somewhere for people to hang out. I realized it had to be in an urban hub, and that becomes difficult. I looked at 20-30 places in Philly before I found the Fishtown location. I completely fell in love with it.”
He described the location as “25,000 square feet of historic renovation” with a liquor license.
“I had to convince the city that it wasn’t going to be some horrible corporate takeover. We got through that, then went through the zoning board. We have a local architect to put the whole thing together. It’s great,” he said.
The multimillion-dollar Fishtown location, now 30-60 days from its grand opening, was featured earlier this week by The Philadelphia Business Journal. Allen told The Journal the club has recruited 150 members so far through two membership types: “one that includes car storage on-site and one that is only a social membership”.
The facility has storage for 70 to 80 vehicles and will be managed by Allen’s partners Justin Miller, David Asplundh, Frank Bennett and James Allen, among others.
For more on Cannonball Storage, located at 33 Tomlinson Road (Lower Moreland Township) and Cannonball Club at 1115 Frankford Avenue (Philadelphia), you can visit their website.
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Photos/Renderings: Cannonball Storage