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.
The Coca-Cola planted closed in 2006, when Coca-Cola consolidated its operations, moving some of its work to Harrisburg and Lancaster, and some to northern Maryland. The Springettsbury Township plant has been standing empty since that time. It had been operating for 60 years before it closed. Capital bought the building for about $2 million in 2008. Both buyer and seller were represented in the transaction by Rock Commercial Realty. Rock had put the building on the market in 2007, but although there was quite a bit of interest from buyers initially, zoning issues and access problems for large vehicles made it difficult to sell the plant, at first, according to Rock's president, David Keech. Keech said that he thought Capital's operation was a good fit for the building and the location.
Capital Self Storage has a history of turning unused buildings into self-storage facilities, rather than building new facilities on empty land. The process started when Snyder, who founded Capital, moved to a family farm with his wife, Deb. The two of them converted another farm on their property into a storage facility, which became their first self-storage business location. Now the company has locations throughout southcentral Pennsylvania.
Many self-storage companies are starting to look at building conversions as a way to expand their businesses. Almost all markets contain a few vacant, partially vacant, or functionally obsolete properties. Conversions offer self-storage businesses several advantages. They are often located in areas that are already well-developed. Also, because conversions place self-storage businesses inside existing businesses, it is unlikely that community groups will object to the aesthetics of the business and how it makes the neighborhood look, which occasionally happens when self-storage facilities are built on empty land.