What can you do with a large, empty building that was previously used as a discount retail superstore? Make a self storage warehouse out of it. That’s what several retailers and real estate developers, after trying unsuccessfully to sell vacant buildings in a rough real estate market, are concluding. Over the summer, a group of Dallas real estate developers bought an old Walmart and converted it to a Just Store It facility. Now Menards has followed suit, turning its old Eau Claire, Wisconsin facility into a self storage business -- Menards Self Storage. [More]

Capital Self Storage, of Springettsbury Township, Pennsylvania, has begun renovating a former Coca-Cola bottling plant, to add the space to its self-storage facility. Capital made the decision to buy the old Coca-Cola plant two years ago. It plans to demolish an old garage at the back of the property, putting up five new buildings in its place. The expansion will add about 350 new storage units, comprising 38,000 feet of additional space, to Capital's facility. The project will cost about $1 million to complete, according to Capital's owner, Ken Snyder.

Snyder was excited about the opportunity to expand Capital's space, noting that the Coca-Cola plant's location is idea because it is in the middle of a densely-populated, heavily-traveled area. Business in Pennsylvania has been good lately, he says, not because of foreclosures, but because of other factors, such as children moving back in with their parents. [More]