I am moving to a bigger facility and need to get real commercial garage insurance. Anyone out that have an idea what type of company I should be looking for and an idea of what type of coverage I should look into?

check with Howard the insurancd wizard

Bernie

Brett, are you talking about an auto repair shop or a fabrication shop. It will make a huge difference. Sentry Insurance has a good program for metal fabrication businesses.
At a minimum you will need a million $$ commercial liability and property coverage. Premiums are often based on gross income, combined with the nature of the business. As a business owner you can claim exemption from workmans comp but once you have an employee this coverage becomes mandatory. Completed products coverage is often added for manufacturing and fabrication businesses.
I don't know what other coverage is required for an auto repair facility.

Ha! Howard recently told me that he doesn't do commercial insurance anymore.
Look up brokers in your state. Companies with A- or better rating and 1+2mil is the generic starting coverage (really varies depending on each case).

Chris it will be a design and fabrication facility. I am not advertising as an automotive repair facility but I am probably be going to engine swaps, race car fab work, general automotive engineering consulting.

I am not looking for profits right now. I have four months before I am done with school so basically I am looking to get my name out there and do enough work to cover my bills and allow me enough free time to finish my race car, so I can really get to it after I graduate.

I want enough insurance to cover all of my equipment and should I have a customer's race car in there and the building burns down.....

All you need then is general liability and property coverage. Your landlord might require an insurance certificate proving you have it too.
Annual cost will be around $2K plus or minus $500.

Is your insurance based on sales? Does it cover a race car in your shop if it burns down? What about a customers restoration? Repair work?

Brett, there are a few different insurance options. I looked into it for months and let me tell you, it sucks A**. Give me a call and i'll give you some suggestions. First and foremost, try not to say AUTOMOTIVE. It's a bad word, kind of like when you're buying parts for an experimental aircraft and mistakenly say it's for that purpose You can get a business owner's policy for somewhere around a $1000 which covers everything without the actual physical property (landlord carries that).