Old Frenchtown K-Mart to soon be storage facility
Posted By: The Monroe News on September 4, 2022. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The former Kmart in Frenchtown Charter Township will soon become a climate-controlled storage facility.
New England-based self-storage developer True Storage has begun preliminary work to convert the sprawling remains of the former retailer into a self-storage facility that they hope to open by March 1.
“We’re excited about the project, to put a new face on the building,” said True Storage Head of Acquisitions and Due Diligence, Josh Sullivan. “We’re a national self-storage developer based out of New England, but we do service the greater eastern portion of the United States, basically east of the Mississippi River is our cutoff. We specialize in conversions of former big box retail and industrial property. This one is a K-Mart, we’ve done a lot of Sears, Toys R Us, Circuit City, the larger retailers across the country who, due to changes in multiple landscapes, have gone defunct…”
Frenchtown’s K-Mart closed in 2017. In March 2021, the Frenchtown Board of Trustees approved a rezoning of the property located at 1290 N. Monroe St. to commercial, which allowed a company like True Storage to consider it for their uses.
“We’ve found ourselves a pretty good niche,” Sullivan said. “We’re able to come in there and basically revamp, taking the existing structure and demolishing the interior to convert it into climate-controlled self-storage, as well as enhancing the facade…”
Sullivan said that True Storage’s facilities are typically used mostly by local residents, and that the company’s market data showed them there was a substantial need for this type of service in Frenchtown.
But storage may not be the only new business coming soon to this property. Sullivan said that True Storage is looking to sell most of the old K-Mart parking lot to some other type of business.
“Our parking needs, as you can imagine, aren’t as large as the previous use as a retail (business),” Sullivan said. “We’re selling some of that parking lot as retail space, and we’re hoping to get a retail user on that parking lot, whether that be a quick-service (restaurant), a bank, or something of that nature, we’d love to have (something else) on the site so we are marketing that parking lot for retail use.
“We’re excited to be a local service for Frenchtown residents, and to turn the property around.”
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