Self-storage: the simplest building with some of the best numbers

Why the percentages are high

A drive-up storage facility is a set of simple metal buildings surrounded by pavement. The buildings are cheap per square foot; the site is not. Drive aisles, concrete aprons, perimeter fencing, slide gates and operators, keypads, bollards, yard lighting, storm drainage and grading routinely exceed a quarter of total project cost — all 15-year land improvements, all bonus eligible.

The unit systems question

Interior partition systems between units are generally not structural. Roll-up doors serving individual units, latches and hardware, unit-level lighting with motion sensing, and door alarms are personal property serving the storage function rather than the building.

This is worth engineering carefully rather than assuming, because the answer depends on how the partitions are attached and whether they can be reconfigured without damage — which on most modern facilities they can, since reconfiguring unit mix is a routine operating decision.

Security and access

The access control platform, gate operators, keypads, camera coverage, network cabling, individual door alarms and the office and retail counter build-out are all short-life. On a modern facility this is a meaningful category.

Climate-controlled buildings

These add dedicated HVAC. The classification question is whether the equipment conditions an occupied space generally or serves the storage function specifically. It is fact-dependent and worth documenting properly rather than defaulting either way.

Typical range

24% to 36% of depreciable basis, with drive-up-dominant sites at the higher end because the site-to-building ratio is more favourable.

Expansion phases

Storage grows in phases, which means multiple placed-in-service dates on one site. Each phase has its own basis and its own schedule, and shared site work has to be allocated across them. Studies that treat a phased facility as one asset get the conventions wrong.