Dive Brief:
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The single-story, sprawling self-storage complex is making way for a new generation of multiple-story units on smaller lots.
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Inside Self-Storage magazine reported that a lack of vacant land and rising lot prices are fueling the trend toward construction of three- and four-story storage facilities.
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Another growing trend within the niche: Building owners are experimenting with more contemporary designs, materials other than steel, and energy efficiency. “Innovation is meeting consumer demand for better quality and more fashionable storage sites,” the magazine noted.
Dive Insight:
The new popularity of vertical storage complexes, however, doesn’t mean the end of the expansive, single-story facilities that have become a fixture of urban and suburban landscapes.
“Where space allows,” the magazine said, those easy-to-access drive-up units “continue to prevail.”
Those traditional, sprawling storage structures have gotten a facelift, however, with new designs featuring wide, interior corridors that maximize the use of precious land, one designer told the magazine.
