Investing in and developing multi-story self-storage buildings makes sense for a variety of reasons, from increasing land costs to the site configuration challenges that come with working in urban areas.
Densely populated urban areas are a stark contrast to the more spread out suburbs. While stylish design elements like exposed brick and industrial elements are more popular in cities, function tends to hold more weight here than fashion.
Multi-level self-storage isn’t new, but these designs have skyrocketed in popularity in the past few years, because of their ability to function in a variety of ways – for instance, office buildings and apartment complexes can co-exist with self-storage facilities and retail spaces.
A single-story self-storage project could cover five acres or more, while a multi-story development likely won’t even take up a full acre. That means going vertical can help with efficiency, demand, and scale, no matter the size of the site you’re building on.
To understand why multi-story projects will only continue to grow in popularity, we have to look at U.S. population trends and migration patterns. While larger urban areas have always been in a category of their own, smaller metropolitan areas are now building themselves up – excuse the pun – and finding more and more need for spaces that can grow taller without contributing to more sprawl.
Additionally, millennials, who are now the single largest demographic segment in the U.S., are moving further away from home than previous generations did. They are more likely than ever to live in apartments in busy urban centers. But the change in lifestyle from a locational standpoint doesn’t affect their buying patterns – they are still acquiring things at the same rate as previous generations who had the space to do so.
In American cities, extra storage space is a heavily sought-after commodity. Especially in more densely packed cities, that entry-way closet might be all you have to work with throughout your entire apartment.
From a logistics standpoint, the move to multi-story builds just makes sense. In some of these urban centers with huge amounts of potential renters, finding a sprawling, multi-acre site to build a storage facility on is simply an impossibility.
There is no doubt that the self-storage industry continues to embrace and erect more and more of these multi-level buildings. Hover’s self-storage experience means you’ll have a full team of licensed architects and designers ready to help you build your multi-story project.