Update 2-12-15 – Banff officials have invited submissions for the design, construction and operation of the town-owned self-storage facility under consideration at 300 Hawk Ave. The municipality will receive submissions through Feb. 24.

February 13, 2015

2 Min Read
Officials Plan Town-Owned Self-Storage Facility in Banff, Alberta, Canada

Update 2/12/15 – Banff officials have invited submissions for the design, construction and operation of the town-owned self-storage facility under consideration at 300 Hawk Ave. The municipality will receive submissions through Feb. 24.

The submission period, launched Feb. 2, is to gauge interest and support for the project, Diana Waltmann, the town’s communications manager, told the source. “Council directed staff to proceed to determine if interest exists during service review and budget,” she said. “Once we’ve determined that interest exists, the next step is to issue a comprehensive [Request for Proposals]. If we determine qualified interest doesn’t exist, we would consider canceling the project.”

12/29/14 – Officials in Banff, Alberta, Canada, are planning to build a town-owned self-storage facility that will not only house its municipal vehicles and public-transportation bus fleet but offer storage space to the public. The proposed $4.9 million project at 300 Hawk Ave. includes a total building area of 15,050 square feet, with 5,000 square feet reserved for vehicle storage and 10,050 for public self-storage, according to the source.

Under the plan, the town would borrow money for the project under a 30-year debenture, with revenue from public self-storage rentals used to offset the full cost of financing and operating the vehicle-storage portion of the facility, the source reported.

“We’re not going to get into the self-storage business, we’ll let the private sector do that,” Town Manager Robert Earl told the source. “We would finance the building, and we would get a check.”

The municipality has an “on-site commercial credit” due to the removal of two structures on the site and will rebuild the storage facility to the same commercial square footage. The vehicle-storage space will fall under a government-service category, the source reported.

A market survey conducted for Banff officials by NRG Research Group reportedly indicated consumer demand for storage space and conservatively projected first-year revenue for the project at $428,000.

The project could conceivably meet public demand for self-storage as well as solve the town’s need for climate-controlled storage for departmental equipment and emergency-response trailers. “Operational efficiencies need to be addressed as this equipment is currently stored in the transit fleet building during winter in order to prevent damage,” project manager David Brennan wrote in a budget report to the town council. “The equipment is then shuffled around on a daily basis to accommodate overnight transit bus storage.”

The storage facility would include environmental building components such as solar panels and efficient lighting and heating systems. Officials must still issue a request for proposal for the design, building and operation of the storage facility. A finance bylaw must also be addressed by council members before the project can move forward, according to the source.

Sources:

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