November 19, 2018

2 Min Read
U-Haul Self-Storage Proposal Rejected in Garfield Township, MI

The Garfield Township, Mich., Board of Trustees unanimously rejected a zoning change last week that would have paved the way for U-Haul International Inc. to convert a vacant Kmart store into self-storage. U-Haul had planned a $10 million project that would have offered climate-controlled storage and truck rentals in the 90,000-square-foot space, according to the source.

The applicant was Schostak Bros. & Co., which owns the Kmart parcel and is one of three property owners within the Cherryland Center. Part of the trustees’ reasoning for turning down the zoning request was that it would have applied to the entire planned shopping district, which also includes the Grand Traverse Mall and a Meijer retail store. The board didn’t want to set a precedent that could allow self-storage in those retail spaces, the source reported.

Several staff members and trustees noted that self-storage is an allowable use in the township’s industrial districts where numerous parcels are available for development. The planning commission also had recommended against the proposal.

The board’s contention that self-storage isn’t a good fit in a retail center didn’t sit well with Jonathan Gilmore, president of the U-Haul Co. of Western Michigan. “This is something that we’ve done many times successfully,” Gilmore told the board. “We blend into a retail environment. That’s where we work. We don’t operate in the shadows. We don’t operate in industrial areas. It’s not what works for us. It’s not what brought us to be a Fortune 500 company.”

Some neighboring businesses spoke in favor of the U-Haul project. “We see it as a complementary enterprise to not only our business, but also our competitors’ business up and down Garfield,” said Bill Marsh Jr., owner of Bill Marsh Auto.

Though Schostak argued that turning away the U-Haul proposal could mean the Kmart shell and other empty stores in the center will remain empty for a long time, trustee Steve Duell noted the board had recently overhauled the zoning rules for mall properties to encourage other desirable uses. Zoning now allows bars and nightclubs, drive-through services, entertainment centers, hotels, and multi-family housing developments into shopping districts.

“I think we need to give these [zoning changes] a chance for developers because this just came implemented in,” Duell said during the meeting. “I think this is going to explode by what we’ve done in favor of the [planned shopping] districts.”

Established in 1945, U-Haul owns more than 55 million square feet of storage space. The company’s corporate sustainability initiatives, which support infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint, has led to dozens of conversion projects in recent years.

Source:
The Ticker, Township Rejects U-Haul for Cherryland Center

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