The Town of Banff is planning to a build a $4.9 million warehouse for municipal vehicles and Roam buses – but also to provide self-storage rental space to the public.
Town of Banff officials say the idea is to finance construction of a 15,050 square foot heated storage facility at 300 Hawk Avenue in the industrial compound through rental of self-storage units to the public.
Officials say the municipality plans to borrow for the $4.9 million development over a 30-year debenture, but that revenues from self-storage rentals would offset the full cost of financing and operating the vehicle storage portion of the project.
“We’re not going to get into the self-storage business, we’ll let the private sector do that,” said Town Manager Robert Earl. “We would finance the building and we would get a cheque.”
A total building area of 15,050 square feet is being proposed, with the self-storage component occupying an available town-owned commercial allotment of 10,050 square feet, leaving 5,000 square feet for vehicle storage.
In essence, the Town of Banff has an on-site commercial credit because of the removal of two buildings and it is rebuilding to the same commercial square footage. The space for vehicle storage will fall under the category of government service.
The next step is to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for the design, construction and operation of the facility to see if it’s even feasible. A borrowing bylaw will have to go back to council before the project can go ahead.
From a residential perspective, a recent market survey done for the Town of Banff by NRG Research Group indicated there is demand for storage space in the Town of Banff and the proposed self-storage area would be completely rented.
The research group indicated the total estimate of the initial year’s revenue for the Town of Banff to be about $428,000 – and the group says that’s on the conservative end.
Officials say Town of Banff departments have a need for dry, heated storage for equipment for the utility, streets, grounds and fleet departments, as well as emergency response trailers.
“Operational efficiencies need to be addressed as this equipment is currently stored in the transit fleet building during winter in order to prevent damage,” said project Manager David Brennan in a budget report to council. “The equipment is then shuffled around on a daily basis to accommodate overnight transit bus storage.”
The development cost estimates have been adjusted in line with 2015 unit rates and for the inclusion of environmental components including solar photo-voltaic, high efficiency lighting and heating systems.
