by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

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The NitNeil Partners storage facility on South is starting to take form. The four-story project will, fortunately, be much more urban in form than the newer ones popping up on Capital Boulevard. Just take a look at their rendering below.

Rendering of storage facility for South Street

Rendering courtesy of Nitneil Partners

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21 Comments

  1. Still garbage. What a waste of such a prime location. As if we don’t have enough storage facility buildings literally surrounding the city. But I guess the new one going up literally right next to the existing U-haul + storage facility on Capital, right at the entrance to downtown, wasn’t enough garbage.

  4. @Jake — Wait there’s another one going up by the giant U-haul one entering downtown? Seriously? That’s kind of ridiculous. Such a waste and eyesore for a site on the Northern gateway.

  5. There’s also storage facilities going up along two locations on New Bern, one in Raleigh near Bojangles and one in Knightdale near Lowe’s Foods. I guess I didn’t realize that there was such a demand for storage facilities.

  6. We are consumer nation after all. People have to have somewhere to put all that useless sh## they blow money on weekly.

  7. These facilities do much more good than people think. They support people working from home, small businesses, empty nesters/millenials that are seeking an urban lifestyle, downtown businesses and restaurants, sales reps, etc. Yes, they aren’t ‘sexy’ like a boutique hotel or trendy restaurant. But they are very much needed in areas that are growing rapidly and becoming more urban. They also pay quite a bit in property taxes. This is a huge improvement to the ‘eye sore’ that was there previously. Calling them ‘garbage’ is pretty ridiculous and sounds uninformed. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge without fully understanding the business. I’ll be happy to send you more literature on them if you’d like.

  8. Some people here get their panties in a wad if anything is built or proposed other than a 40 story glass wrapped building.

  9. Hey Nitesh….you just confidently said a mini-storage was not garbage, but that a car repair facility was (eye sore)….
    Virtually every opinion I’ve ever read would either say they both are more appropriate away from downtown proper, or that they are both part of a diverse set of downtown business types. Never seen anyone split a hair that didn’t seem splitable, with such gusto…

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    I tend to think mini storage should be incorporated into condo and apartment properties (Hudson Condos does for instance, as does Caraleigh Mills) and that it is a waste as a free standing building, and Car repair is fine along properties facing fast moving highways like Capital and S Saunders.

  10. Hey Nitesh- All good on the literature. And obviously they are necessary and clearly in demand. But look at that rendering again and tell me it’s not ugly as hell. Put them on the outskirts, sure, but right in the downtown area? I wouldn’t have expected a “40 story glass wrapped building” to be proposed there, but something more mixed use would’ve made way more sense for the location – This area is going to blow up within a few years.

  11. I agree it’s not the best use of urban lots, but it is not in main drag downtown and not worth getting upset over. There’s still plenty of old mechanic shops in much more prominent locations that need redeveloping to make DT cohesive and enjoyably walkable, i.e. Davie and Dawson, boylan and Hillsborough, etc. They will hopefully turn into cool shops/bars/restaurants and we’ll forget all about the storage unit all the way down on south

  12. There’s not a lot of investment in a storage building. It can easily be raised and replaced with a more economically productive building type at a future date.

  13. I’m kind of split on this one. On one hand, I see the point about it being on pretty valuable real estate that might have a better r more lucrative use. On the other, which is where I’m leaning, I could totally see how it would’ve been terribly useful to have a storage facility that was walkable or a short drive from where I used to live in downtown. I loved my downtown condo, but storage for a few random, seldomly used but necessary items was at a premium. I would have loved some place close to store things like Christmas decorations, pool and beach toys/items (floats, chairs, etc) and other seasonal items that weren’t in use >80% of the year. Not a huge garage sized unit, but one of the smaller ones would’ve come in handy.

  14. This industry is growing like a weed. It is simple supply and demand. Developers who ten to fifteen years ago would not have considered this type of construction have now formed entire new divisions to construct self storage. Cheap (relatively) to build, cash-flow positive from day one, and great place-holders for land which may be redeveloped at a later date if prudent. Don’t blame the developers, people. They build what provides a return. Blame the consumer, who absolutely cannot live without enough crap to not only fill their dwelling, but to also pack into a storage unit.

  15. At the moments, developments of this quality typically cost between $8M and $12M so they’re large investments. While the full time employment isn’t significant, they also employee 200+ jobs (mostly local contractors) during construction. To address the comments about these needing to be outside of downtown areas, I would encourage everyone that believes that to visit the new Extra Space property in downtown Durham. It’s an architecturally respectable facility and the rental activity has been off the charts. Many businesses, apartment dwellers, and Duke students (grad and undergrad) are renting there. The customer base is diverse but many are going through some sort of transition. The bottom line is that these are fulfilling a need in communities. The hoarders and junk collectors that people are alluding to is not the typical customer at these higher end properties. Some other benefits that people fail to recognize when they quickly pass judgement after hearing the word ‘storage’: these facilities put no burden on traffic and a city’s infrastructure (schools, utilities, etc) and they act as ‘watchdogs’ for neighborhoods by being well lit throughout the night, including state of the art surveillance.

    The prior comment by Adrian is spot on. All business comes down to supply and demand. In Raleigh, the storage market is reaching equilibrium and arguably an oversupply in the short term. That coupled with restrictive zoning will limit the future viability of facilities. But the ones that are being built now are in response to the tremendous population growth the city is experiencing as well as the ‘pent up’ demand created during the recession when construction came to a standstill.

  16. Sorry one other comment. This facility being built in downtown Raleigh is mixed use by the way. It will feature retail on the ground level along W South St as an effort to activate the street. Storage units will be on the levels above.

  18. @bam – Based on the comments and the fact that I’ve never seen a Nitesh on here until now, CLEARLY they own a storage facility, or have some sort of investment in this one. Haha.

    As for ground floor retail on this new South St facility – @Nitesh is that actually true? I hadn’t heard that detail until ^now^ and the rendering doesn’t really make it super obvious (I assumed it was just a lobby to the facility itself) – if so, that’d definitely activate the street level experience a lot better.

  20. @Evan – well that certainly makes the whole project a lot more interesting! Too bad this couldn’t look more like that Downtown Louisville, KY facility rendering! Looks way cooler, but I also wonder if that’s simply a renovation of an existing old warehouse.

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