Platinum Storage received zoning approval last week for a planned self-storage development in Rowlett, Texas. The city council voted 6-1 in favor of the zoning, agreeing the property behind the RaceTrac convenience store and gas station is better suited to self-storage than retail or offices, according to the source.

If approved for construction, the facility at the northwest corner of Lakeview Parkway and Chiesa Road will comprise 104,000 square feet of storage space in 485 units. It will also include an apartment for the onsite manager.

City officials appear to favor the self-storage proposal in part because of insufficient supply for local residents, according to the source. Even after the Platinum facility is built, Rowlett will still have less self-storage per capita than nearby communities, Maxwell Fisher, a land-use consultant with Dallas-based Masterplan Consultants, told council members.

By comparison, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex market has about 7.9 square feet of self-storage per capita vs. Rowlett’s 6.3 square feet, including the Platinum project, Fisher said. The Rowlett market currently includes six self-storage facilities offering about 260,000 square feet of space. Of those six, all have occupancy of 90 percent or higher, even though climate-controlled space makes up just 18 percent of the unit mix, he added. Two other storage projects will add another 30,000 square feet of storage, according to the source.

“I think a lot of people have a misconception about storage because there is a lot of storage out there in the [Dallas-Fort Worth] area that is old,” Fisher told the council. “It’s the old warehousing style. There’s no screening. The doors face out.”

The Platinum design would feature storage units that face the interior of the site and an exterior façade of stone and brick. The project would also include 11-foot walls to screen the storage property from its neighbors.

Platinum Storage owner and developer Ron Valk purchased four Texas properties last fall including two in nearby Garland, Texas. Based in Rockwall, Texas, Valk has been a self-storage developer and owner since 1975. He has said he is actively looking to acquire and develop additional storage facilities in the Texas market.

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