US Door Adds New Level of Storage with Santa Fe Conversion
A vacant builder’s supply yard was transformed into the multi-story United Stor-All Santa Fe with a pre-engineered interior mezzanine system. The results are a space-efficient and profitable business for the owner and an asset to the community where a vestige of commerce once stood.
The United Stor-All Santa Fe project is typical of a trend in the self-storage industry, which has seen the number of multi-story facilities rise over the last four years. According to the 2005 Self-Storage Almanac, the number of multi-story self-storage facilities rose from 8.2 percent to 13.8 percent between 2000 and 2004.
A growing number of project owners are redeveloping existing buildings such as the San Mateo Storage Partners, the developer of the Santa Fe conversion. Another factor that favors this approach is the fact that local governments are scrutinizing proposals for new self-storage facilities as land becomes scarcer.
Vacant warehouses, lumber yards and other commercial buildings make ideal shells to redevelop into self-storage facilities, in part, because such projects typically require less time and money to meet local zoning regulations.
San Mateo Storage Partners local principals Webb Wallace and Rob Lee have developed over a dozen self-storage facilities around the country, and brought their experience and knowledge to the United Stor-All Santa Fe facility.
They redeveloped the former Furrow building into a self-storage facility with 542 units, including 400 units that will be climate controlled. The facility took less than a year to complete, with an overall construction phase of less than 5 months, and is expected to open by June 2005.
United-Stor All Santa Fe will offer industry leading site security, including electronic gates and doors operable by the tenant’s personalized access code. Other security features include individually alarmed units, central alarm notification and video surveillance.
In addition to using an existing building, construction was sped up with pre-engineered steel systems from US Door & Building Components of Orlando, Florida. They procured an Access-A-Deck Mezzanine System from US Door that added a second story onto the project under the existing ceiling.
“This is something US Door proposed to us and we thought it was a good idea,” Wallace said.
US Door & Building Components is an international supplier of self storage components, rolling steel doors, wind load certified doors (Including Dade & Broward counties of Florida), interior hallway systems, garage storage systems, stackable storage & wine locker systems, mezzanine systems, portable building systems and structural pier & header systems. Services include engineering, design, bid take-off, and unit mix layout.
In addition to speed of installation, the mezzanine’s additional storage units significantly increased the floor area ratio and the value of the property.
The design engineers from US Door worked from the architect’s schematic design of the 54,097 square foot interior to maximize the number of units inside, and in this case they were able to add units to the original plans.
The 10,450-square-foot mezzanine utilized the existing HVAC and lighting systems, minimizing the cost of the conversion. The lighting into the mezzanine storage units shines through the security wire mesh ceilings of each unit.
A freight elevator installed at the rear of the building provides a drive-up access point within a reasonable walking distance from the second level.
In the Value Storage Hallway Systems by US Door, prefabricated steel stairs were installed at the end of each hallway for tenants coming up or down without the need of an elevator.
The single-height hallways came with the components needed for the lower level lighting and fire suppression equipment.
The hallways were built around gloss white 20 gauge non-structural piers and headers that strengthened the hallways and are easily designed for retro-fitting an existing building.
The owners chose optional chamfered corners and diamond plate aluminum corner guards to protect the facility’s walls from items being moved in and out of the building.
“It’s a design detail that’s much appreciated,” Wallace said. “It keeps the place looking nice longer.”
“It’s nice to have a pre-engineered system that is so effective in creating a mezzanine level,” Jaschke said.
Jaschke gave the engineers at US Door the project’s parameters, including the height clearance, unit mix and access points, and they designed and created the mezzanine level, storage units, hallways and stairs.
Project architect Martin Kuziel with Architectural Alliance of Santa Fe designed the overall project. The former 1970s era building products and lumber yard operation had been vacant for about a year before its transformation, he said.
The exterior portion of Kuziel's design specified a big red stripe, which was a reminder of the former business, be replaced by new earth-tone paints and a new patina green metal roof.
The conversion of lumber warehouses in the rear of the property also was executed with design assistance from US Door’s specialized team. On them, US Door’s commercial rollup doors move quietly and efficiently with light-lifting features such as wear-strips on the curtain edge, springs with easy to use adjustable tension devices, and bearings.
Each rollup door has a double slide lock suitable for pad locks. The doors can be hung easily on existing buildings because they mount to wood, masonry or steel jambs.
“They’re on bearings so they are very smooth and it takes less effort to open them and keeps the noise down.” Wallace said.
Large vehicle parking will be available in the covered center building, which was left with its sides open, to accommodate large vehicles or sentimental ones that need to be away from searing hot Santa Fe sunshine.
“We have a large vintage car club we hope to rent storage to,” Wallace said. However, the large covered bays would be suitable for any large vehicles including construction equipment and recreation vehicles. As motor home ownership has skyrocketed while the parking spots for them have shrunk, the parking space at United Stor-All should always be full.
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Project:
Furrow's Self Storage
Building Owner:
San Mateo Storage Partners
Location:
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Storage Facility:
United Stor-All
Gross Building Area:
Climate Control: 43,647 Sq.Ft.
Non-Climate: 21,124 Sq.Ft.
Total Building Area: 63,124 Sq.Ft.
Net Rentable Area:
Climate (existing): 31,915 Sq.Ft.
Climate (mezzanine): 7,400 Sq.Ft.
Non-Climate: 21,124 Sq.Ft.
Total Building Area: 60,439 Sq.Ft.
Net Rentable/
Gross Percentages:
Climate Control: 90.0%
Non-Climate: 100.0%
Total Building Area: 95.7%
Completed:
June 2005
Manufacturer:
US Door
Systems:
Mezzanine
Value Storage Hallways
Stackable Lockers
Building Components
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