Many fields have their wild anecdotes and the seemingly staid world of self storage is no exception. Take, for example, the ultimate staycation.
Michael Gyory, co-owner of the new, “environmentally friendly” Thornwood Self Storage Center, tells the tale:
“One of the industry stories is some guy rents a unit and they see him coming in every day and they know there”™s nothing in his unit. The people in charge can”™t resist anymore, so they say to him, ”˜Look, you don”™t have to tell us, but what do you do in the unit every day?”™ And the guy opens the door and there”™s a battery-operated lamp and a chair, and he says, ”˜I have six kids.”™ ”¦ so some people just use this as a place to get away.”
Gyory said he isn”™t too worried about that happening here, however.
The 48,000-square-foot facility at 950 Broadway includes 361 units, which measure from 25 square feet to more than 400 square feet, on three floors. Rental fees for units start at $99 a month. Green features include rooftop solar panels, a motion-sensored lighting system and climate control.
Gyory built, operated and sold Katonah Self Storage Center in 2005. The Thornwood facility is his second self-storage business venture.
“My father built this building back in the early ”˜60s and it was originally a two-floor furniture showroom and warehouse,” Gyory said. “Over the years it got chopped up to various tenants. The biggest tenant was a health club, which frankly was a poor use for the property because there wasn”™t a lot of parking and there were a lot of people here, so I always wanted to convert this to a storage facility.”
As the gym”™s lease was set to expire, Gyory saw an opportunity.
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“We bought out the remainder of the lease and converted the building to storage,” Gyory said. “We took out the existing wooden floor, which was two-and-a-half feet higher, lowered the floor and put in a whole new floor, so we renovated within the existing shell of the building. The one in Katonah we built from the ground up and that was much easier; we built that in six months.”
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Converting the building”™s use will also result in less traffic congestion and auto emissions, Gyory said.
The project was funded with a $4.3 million construction loan from Wells-Fargo Bank N.A., said Gyory”™s partner, Dan Kasman.
“Wells does a lot of local lending and they really liked the project from the start,” Kasman said. “Their big emphasis is relationship lending, and it”™s hard to believe that in today”™s day and age that still exists.
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They really look for interesting, creative deals with good sponsorship, and that”™s how we hooked up with them and they really liked the fact that we were local and had a vested interest in the community.”
Solar panels on the roof will be installed by New Rochelle-based Mercury Solar Systems.
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“They”™ve contracted with us to install a system on their self-storage facility that”™s pending NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) approval at this point, but it”™s all locked down (and) ready to go,” said Frank Alfano, president and CEO of Mercury Energy Inc., parent company of Mercury Solar Systems.
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Alfano said the 80,000 DC-watt system will produce power on an annual basis that will save $20,000 on the storage center”™s utility bill. The power saved is the equivalent of recycling 1.5 million soda cans or planting 8 acres of trees, Alfano said.
“In addition, 8,300 gallons of gas won”™t be burned because of the system,” he said. “It”™s good for all of us in Westchester because it provides grid relief ”¦ the distributed generation technology relieves the grid, so on those hot days when people have the air conditioners pumping, the solar system works at the maximum level and relieves pressure on the grid.”
The return on investment at the storage center “after all incentives and accelerated appreciation” is a little under three years, Alfano said. The panels are under warranty for 25 years.
“There are systems that have been installed 30 or 40 years ago that are still up and running,” he said.
The web site is www.thornwoodselfstoragecenter.com.
