Originally this was approved (for) about two-thirds storage and the rest of it would have been some type of retail space”
A long-dormant former Kmart site at a largely vacant Fairborn shopping center is the focus of a proposal for a 600-plus-unit indoor self storage business.
Plans for the location at the Five Points Plaza at 224 E. Dayton Yellow Springs Road include an 84,180-square-foot Storage Sense on about 9.5 acres that also includes a former Kroger site, Fairborn records show.
It is reported to be a $4 million project at a shopping center that has sat largely vacant for more than six years. Kroger closed its Five Points location when it opened a $20 million Marketplace at 1161 E. Dayton Yellow Springs in April 2017, Dayton Daily News records show.
The former Kmart that closed in 2014 was the site of a proposed U-Haul facility for much of that location two years, according to city records. That plan was scrapped after the “initial buyer fell through,” Fairborn Assistant City Manager Mike Gebhart said.
“Originally this was approved (for) about two thirds storage and the rest of it would have been some type of retail space,” Gebhart told city council earlier this month before it approved the preliminary plan. “Since then, with more and more store fronts emptying, the attraction of having retail space just isn’t there.”
Cobblestone Capital of Bowling Green, Ky., plans “to use the former Kmart space entirely for conversion to a self storage facility,” CEO Zach Williams said in a letter to the city.
It would include a drive through and “will be well managed and secure. We have recently completed a similar project in the neighboring Dayton area,” Williams added.
Messages left for Williams were not returned. “It’s great that it’s not going to (remain) vacant,” Fairborn Councilwoman Tana Stanton said.
Storage Sense caters to clients interested in business, residential and vehicle storage, according to its website. It has more than 100 locations in more than 20 states.
The Fairborn business will have 530 units on first floor and 77 on a mezzanine, Gebhart said. There will be “no outdoor storage or truck or trailer leasing” in the parking lot, he added.
Upgrading the parking lot was among a series of conditions on which city approval was based. The site is owned by Gator Five Points Partners, which bought it for $2.1 million in 2007, according to Greene County land records. Five Points Plaza was built in the mid-1970s, records show.
Attempts to reach Gator Investments’ officials about the property were unsuccessful. Aside from the former Kmart, the plaza also includes about 51,000 square feet of available space, Gator Investments’ website states.
