U-Haul taking over former Western Star Trucks factory
Company plans to renovate wide-open space into 1,000 indoor self-storage units
After sitting empty for 15 years, new life is being breathed into the vast former Western Star Trucks factory on Kelowna’s Enterprise Way.
U-Haul, the international moving truck and self-storage unit rental giant, has purchased the 253,296-square-foot facility for an undisclosed price.
U-Haul is already operating a moving truck and trailer rental service at the site.
It also rents and sells moving supplies and U-Box portable moving and self-storage containers from the store at 2076 Enterprise Way.
But with the purchase of the massive one-storey building, U-Haul plans a quick renovation to turn the wide-open space into 1,000 indoor self-storage units of varying sizes.
“Our intention wasn’t to secure a property this big,” said Port Moody-based Horace Martin, B.C. president of U-Haul.
“But we got a good price and decided, because Kelowna is one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, we could make it work. Everyone knows the U-Haul name and it’s well-respected. I don’t think another smaller company without a household name could take on a project this big and make it work.”
U-Haul still has to get some approvals from the City of Kelowna before renovations can start on the former factory.
It hopes the process will go smoothly so work on the self-storage units can start in the summer.
When fully-operational, the U-Haul Moving & Storage Centre in Kelowna will be the secondbiggest U-Haul facility in Canada behind only a recently-opened space in Windsor, Ont.
Generally, U-Haul’s bigger combined moving truck and self-storage facilities are about 150,000 square feet, which is the size of its centre in Milton near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
At 253,296 square feet, the new U-Haul centre will be the secondlargest building in the city.
The biggest is Orchard Park mall at 685,000 square feet.
To further put the U-Haul centre’s size in perspective, it will be about twice the size as 130,000square-foot Rona, Kelowna’s largest store, and will cover the amount of ground of about five football fields side-by-side.
Most smaller U-Haul truck rental facilities are dealers who operate it as their sole business or part of another on-site company.
However, the new Kelowna UHaul centre will be corporately-owned-and-operated and managed by Christina Turzanski and her team.
It’s nice to see the former Western Star Trucks plant find a purpose again.
However, the handful of employees it will take to run the U-Haul operation there will be nothing like the 1,100 workers who put out 31 trucks a day at Western Star’s peak.
Heavy-truck manufacturing took place in the factory from 1967 to 2002, which is when owner Daimler-Chrysler moved the Western Star brand into one of its factories in Portland, Ore.
Lordco auto parts and electric and gas utility FortisBC also rent small spaces in the former factory and will stay on.
I don't think another smaller company without a household name could take on a project this big and make it work.
U-Haul B.C. president Horace Martin