Ive rented a few shop spaces. Whats already said about stuff expanding to fit is ridiculously true.
First I rented a 3500 sq foot space for about 1000 a month with two other guys. 1/3rd of the space was supposed to be dedicated to running my business, the other two thirds for hobby purposes between the 3 of us.
We found an auto shop going out of business and in a super bargain picked up a lift and a bunch of shelving, tables, and an air compressor for about 2 grand.
The original purpose was that each of us would have their project car in there, and the lift would be primarily used for repair and maintenance on our work vehicles.
within 3 months, I had taken over the entire space, bought the other two guys out of their 3rds, bought all the equipment, and literally packed the available space with diesel VWs and mercedes. I think the high water mark was 7 crammed in there, none that ran. This is the risk you run.
Since then and since discovering incredible health and safety concerns on the old space, I moved my business and hobby stuff into a 2 story high 1300 sqft space for about 900 a month, which was brand new with excellent amenities, which I then divided in half, one for business, the other for hobby with some movable walls, and limited myself to only as many hobby vehicles as I could fit in one half of my space with all my equipment. That means a total of three, one on the lift, one parked under it, and one outside.
A few tips, if you rent a communal space with other people-
1. make sure you hold the lease and they sublet from you. Its better to be the one with the power.
2. The most expensive part about owning the lift will be moving it and setting it up, especially if your move around over time. Its WAY more cost effective to you to spend 500 bucks having someone set it up who is fully insured. you drop a 400lb cross beam on yourself, you might be crippled for life. The first guy I hired to do this had to cancel my pending job as he actually did this to himself, turning his lower leg and foot to paste, was a nasty incident and over two years have gone by and he still can't walk.
3. Depending on the location of your hobby shop, the possession of a lift may require compliance with local ordinances on electrical and safety, I just recently had to add an emergency shut off right on the lift.
4. Like the lease, its better to be the one who owns the equipment and you let other people borrow it or use it for a fee. I ended up buying the other guys out of the lift use as there were repeated instances where it was unusable to me to maintain my work van, with project cars stuck up there for months. its better to be the guy who can do that cause he owns the thing.
Personal property insurance should cover most of your personal stuff, no matter the location based on your provider, but you need to verify this as stated above. My unit technically carries two insurance polices, one for business, one personal form stuff that belongs to me. The way I have this rigged is im personally on the lease to the landlord of the whole unit, and I sublet out half of the unit to myself as an officer of my company.
Having said all this, the cheapest thing to do in the long run as stated by multiple people is to simply put up a pole barn on your property and not have to deal with rent or any malarky.
I will eventually do this in some years time when I settle on a house and yard outside of the city.