Update 10/10/17 – The Napa Planning Commission unanimously approved O’Connell’s self-storage design permit last week for his project on Pueblo Avenue. The facility will be larger than originally anticipated, with nine single-story buildings comprising more than 44,000 square feet in 369 units. It’ll also feature a 675-square-foot office with floor-to-ceiling glass panels, according to the source. Real estate investment trust and third-party management firm Extra Space Storage Inc. is expected to manage the property.

The approved design includes two curb cuts along Pueblo Avenue to provide facility access. The cuts will remove some parking from PJ’s Canvas and force employees to find curbside spaces elsewhere, business owner Pamela Simonson told planners. The reshuffling could also impact customers of Van Winden’s Garden Center across the street, if employees of PJ’s park too close.

Commissioners decided to leave the resolution up to the owners of the two businesses. “I don’t think it’s our job to solve tenant-owner issues—that’s none of our beeswax,” said planner Gordon Huether.

4/3/17 – Real estate developer Wayne O’Connell has applied to build a self-storage facility on a mostly vacant 2-acre parcel in Napa, Calif. He filed a design-review permit last month. The $1 million facility would comprise 40,000 square feet in seven single-story buildings and 375 units. The property at 1890 Pueblo Ave. is already zoned for light-industrial use, which allows self-storage, according to the source.

O’Connell has signed a 99-year lease with the Ilene K. Starin Family Trust, which owns the property. The family has owned the land since the 1950s and once operated a Culligan water business at the site. “They wanted to keep it in the family and earn more income,” O’Connell told the source. “We’re working with them on a joint basis.”

Napa is in short supply for self-storage due to high occupancy levels at existing facilities and an increasing number of residents who are downsizing homes, O’Connell said.

The property is near Highway 29. The facility would be across the street from a garden center and next to an ambulance service, awning business and nursing home. The awning business, PJ’s Canvas, has been on the corner of the Starin parcel for 29 years and would remain. “I don’t anticipate there being any conflict,” PJ’s owner Jay Gardiner told the source.

Piner’s Napa Ambulance owner Jeremy Piner appears to be less supportive, telling the source the development could make the area feel “a bit claustrophobic.” He also noted there could be drainage issues.

O’Connell has lived in Napa for more than 25 years. He’s developed other real estate projects in the Bay Area and Southern California, according to the source.

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