Have too much stuff? $7.5M storage facility opening in Lantana
LANTANA — Space in South Florida is coveted — that includes roads, real estate and yes, storage facilities.
Mini-storage quietly has evolved from the investment-property family into a legitimate money-maker that’s luring public cash and institutional investors — so much so that overbuilding has become a pressing concern.
Enter CubeSmart Self Storage, a $7.5 million, 89,000-squarefoot storage unit in Lantana. The facility, at 420 N. Fourth St., will eventually have up to 750 spaces.
“New construction has less and less closet space,” said Bennie Carmona, the site’s general manager. “It’s much smaller places to put your stuff, and we don’t have any basements (in Florida).”
Although the official opening is Thursday, CubeSmart began renting at the site about two months ago and already has 120 customers.
Space sizes range from 4-by-5 feet, which is like a small walk-in closet, to 10-by-25 feet. Costs range from $68 for the smallest unit to $363 for the largest.
“Right now I have no big spaces available,” Carmona said. “In the storage industry, the bigger the size, the faster they rent. It’s always been like that.”
Carm o na has been w ith CubeSmart for five years and in the storage industry for 18. He said in Florida there are too many people in a transition period in their lives.
“They could be moving,” he said. “We have snowbirds, and the condos make our rentals a little bit slower; but that’s where we take advantage and promote the properties.”
According to the 2018 Self Storage Almanac, CubeSmart is one of the top three owners and operators of self-storage properties in the United States. The U.S. industry consists of approximately 44,000 properties with 2.3 billion rentable square feet, of which the top 10 operators collectively own approximately a 23 percent market share.
CubeSmart has up to 45 properties in Palm Beach County, Carmona said. Three years ago the company spent $7.3 million on a mini-warehouse in Lake Worth at 1900 Sixth Avenue S.
The company has dropped at least $67 million on a dozen properties in the county since late 2012.
The site took about 10 months to build and currently has about 462 units, Carmona said. The additional spaces will come once the third floor is complete, he added.
“It’s easy access and it’s pretty convenient to Palm Beach,” said Carmona. “It has the latest security system, and we have over 38 cameras, which can be turned into 64.” BOYNTON BEACH — While some cities in Palm Beach County are considering banning plastic straws to go green, Boynton Beach commissioners have a different approach.
Mayor Steven Grant proposed a “Green Business Project” that would give businesses the incentive to go green, rather than having the city ban plastic and Styrofoam substances.
“We are actively pursuing ways for the city to be more efficient and effective and green,” Mayor Grant said in a City Commission meeting Thursday. “Rather than trying to punish the bad behavior, we would like to reward good behavior.”
These businesses would be private ones that do not work directly for the city.
The city of Delray Beach and town of Jupiter both considered a citywide ban on plastic straws, but so far have failed to take action. So, some restaurants in the Delray, Boca Raton and Jupiter area took their own initiative to limit the use of plastic straws and replace them with paper ones.
So what would green incentives be for Boynton Beach businesses?
“Maybe we could give them a discount for recycling glass bottles,” Mayor Grant said. “A lot of businesses don’t necessarily recycle because it costs extra, and they just throw glass and plastic away.” He added that the city could also discount overall garbage costs.
Commi s sioner Chris t ina Romelus suggested that future grants the city gives to new businesses, or businesses who want to re-model, could come with requirements to have green actions in place.
Sustainability Coordinator with the city, Rebecca Harvey, said she wants the project to have a financial incentive for businesses that will push them to voluntarily help the environment.
“It will be optional, positive, and the city will give them recognition,” Harvey said, adding that businesses in the project would get decals for their windows.
Harvey thinks that for the city to reward businesses, they should be producing environmentally efficient results.
“They would have to show that they are reducing their water, energy and solid waste usage,” Harvey said.
For restaurants that want to join the project, Harvey suggested that the city could make requirements to have no straws, plastic bags or Styrofoam cups.
“There’s a lot of ways we can go with it since the program is still in development,” Harvey said.
Harvey proposed that the city could get an early start on the project by regulating Styrofoam. The city could do this by amending city contracts for special events and banning contractors from using the products, she said.
Current state law prevents municipalities from regulating Styrofoam products citywide, but there’s nothing stated in the law that bans cities from changing their own contracts, Harvey said.
Harvey is reviewing a draft of the project with Assistant City Manager Colin Groff and plans to add more amendments before showing it to commissioners, she said.