Maximum Mini Storage Project Gets Approval in Universal City, TX

The Universal City, Texas, City Council unanimously approved a Future Land Use Plan amendment, several conditional-use permits and a zoning change during its Aug. 15 meeting, allowing Maximum Mini Storage to move forward with development plans on three adjacent parcels. Bob Ross Realty acquired an existing self-storage facility at 115 Villa Drive and plans to expand its footprint onto 1316 and 1320 Pat Booker Road, where a restaurant and parking lot currently stand, according to the source. Zoning on the land was changed from retail to commercial.

The company intends to build a two-story structure next to the existing storage facility, which will feature offices on the ground floor and storage units on the second level, the source reported. “We saw an opportunity, when we were acquiring [the storage facility and] looked at the tract where the restaurant was, to put an office there and a point of entry and egress,” Marc Ross, president of Bob Ross Realty, told the council.

The restaurant has sold “about a dozen times in the last 15 years,” Ross said during the meeting. The existing storage facility sold in 2016 when it was called Storage & Moving Logistics. At the time of the sale, it comprised 34,813 rentable square feet in 218 drive-up units and 90 uncovered parking spaces. Built in 1983, it sits on 3.8 acres.

Though no one from the public objected to the development during the meeting, councilmember Bear Goolsby asked if the property’s U-Haul moving trucks would remain parked on the street. He was also concerned about the visibility of tenant vehicles being stored onsite and any plans to remove two large oak trees on the property.

Ross indicated he’d like to keep one or two rental trucks visible from the street for advertising purposes but would move most of the trucks behind storage units to keep them out of sight. “We’ve confirmed that all our customers, especially those storing junky-looking cars, are still paying for their storage,” Ross told the council. “Our game plan is, over time, to move the cars being stored to buildings designed for housing vehicles, and removing them from everyday sight. And the trees are staying.”

Bob Ross Realty has opened two other Maximum Mini Storage facilities in Texas since 2001, according to the source. Both are in San Antonio.

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