commercial property lease

commercial property lease
By Dean Brown
 

So let's say you've got some commercial property. Maybe you've been trying to lease it for awhile and nothing's come up, and you're wondering what you can do with a giant building just sitting in the middle of town. You've racked your brain for different ways to turn a profit on the property, but haven't come up with a way to do it yet.

Why not consider converting that vacant building into internal self storage? It's not as difficult as you might think. You've already got a leg up on the competition because it's inside a building, which makes security better. Plus, if your building is already set up for air conditioning, it's easy enough to create a climate-controlled self storage facility.

If internal self storage sounds like the answer to your prayers, here are a few tips on getting started.

Look at the market

If your building is located way outside of town, then it probably won't be a good idea to try and convert it. Nobody's going to want to drive too terribly far out of their way in order to store their stuff.

If you're in town, though, you've got several options. What kind of a demand is there for storage? Do people want climate-controlled, or regular? Are they looking for large storage space, or will smaller spaces do? Would you be catering to businesses or to individuals? Once you know the answers to those questions, it'll be easy to move on to the next step.


Try: Visit http://www.selfstorage.com/  or http://www.usstoragesearch.com/ to locate existing self-storage facilities in your area. You can search by zip code to see the different kinds of self storage available near you.

Dividing up your property

You can have somebody come in to measure your property and help you figure out how to best section it off. They can give you an idea of how many storage units of certain sizes you can get, and that way you can divide your building up in the way that will be most profitable to you.

A specialized crew can convert a 10,000 square foot building into internal self storage in a matter of weeks, so the actual time required for the conversion may not be nearly as much as you think. Some crews can even do it for under $5 a square foot, so your initial investment won't break the bank.


Try: You can look at existing self storage facilities to get an idea of what your competitors are charging. For example, http://www.2turns.com/storage_unit_sizes.htm displays prices for units in the Detroit area. You can also visit http://www.extraspace.com/ChooseYourStorageUnitSize/ to get a better idea of what can actually be stored in different size units.

Handling Employment

One of the things you might be concerned with is employment. How are you going to manage an entire self storage facility?

In reality, staffing for self storage facilities is less problematic than with most businesses ventures. Self storage facilities don't need a lot of maintenance or an army of employees. Once it's converted, it's rather easy for one person working from 8-5 to manage the whole property.


Try: There is actually a specialized help wanted page for the self storage industry. http://www.selfstoragejobs.com/ allows you to look for help across the country.

• If you're at your wits' end at what to do with your commercial property, internal self storage could be the answer. For a minor time and money investment, you could be turning a real profit on a building that's otherwise doing nothing.