I don't mean to contradict your carpenter, because I am not one. But I still think there is a possibility of narrowing the center area between the garage doors. As Rickst said, and your carpenter apparently confirmed, the center area contains a load-bearing structure, and the header beams over the garage door openings rest on that structure. My thought would be to put in a narrower load-bearing structure, such as a lally column, either fixed or screw-adjustable length. Now that you have narrowed the support structure, the header beams won't reach the center of the lally column, of course, so you would put a thick steel plate on top of the column, extending in both directions from the column. The plate extends out far enough for the header beams to rest on it. The reach on each side is not long - maybe 4-6 inches? - so a properly-chosen plate won't bend over that short distance. Bolts in appropriate places will hold the whole thing together so nothing moves.
After supporting the header beams on the plate, you can strip out the original support structure, which is probably wood, rebuild the trim and fascia, and install new doors..
Just my uneducated thought.
Bill
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