Public Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT), plans to raze one of its Nashville, Tenn., locations and replace it with a six-story, 242,000-square-foot facility. Demolition of the existing structure at 800 Fifth Ave. S. in the Lafayette neighborhood near SoBro is scheduled to begin within two months. The REIT already has site-plan approval for the 1.21-acre replacement project and expects the new facility to open in February 2019, according to the source.

Nashville, including the popular SoBro vicinity, has seen an uptick in storage development in recent months. The metro area has 65 new-construction, expansion or renovation projects in various stages of development, according to STR Inc., a data and information-services company. In addition to the Public Storage site, there’s a six-story project under construction on Third Avenue by self-storage developer The Natchez Group.

Developers have considered the Public Storage property “the elephant in the room for everyone that's looked at building storage in SoBro," Taylor Preston, principal at The Natchez Group, told the source. Upon completion, the facility is expected to be the largest self-storage location in Nashville, outpacing a 143,000-square-foot Citadel Self Storage facility under development from Andover Management Group at Fesslers Lane and Interstate 40, the source reported.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Little Diversified Architectural Consulting is the architect on the Public Storage project.

Based in Glendale, Calif., the REIT has interests in 2,354 self-storage facilities in 38 states, with approximately 155 million net rentable square feet. Operating under the Shurgard brand name, the company also has 220 facilities in seven European countries, with approximately 12 million net rentable square feet.

Sources: