The self-storage facility, which will be operated by Cube Smart, will be a modern, temperature-controlled site” – Jason Sommer, Owner of Diamond Point Development
The cinderblock and steel frame building under construction on the city’s west side across the street from the new Caraluzzi’s market is a self-storage site that’s due to open in December.
An inquiry about what kind of building is being constructed on that property came to The News-Times as part of a reader-driven feature by Hearst Connecticut Media called “What’s Up With That Place?” where subscribers nominate a property they want to know more about, and we investigate.
“At this point the schedule is to open in mid-December, but we are hoping to open sooner,” said Jason Sommer, who owns Georgia-based Diamond Point Development with his brother, Aaron. “The city of Danbury has been great to work with.”
Sommer is referring to a 105,000-square-foot building on Mill Plain Road between Aunt Hack Road and the Panda House restaurant that has been a challenge to develop. The 3.5-acre property at 95 Mill Plain Road, which for years was an abandoned lot, needed to be rock-blasted in the back of the site where the slope incline begins.
“We also had to relocate some power lines, which is never fun,” Sommer said. “But at the end of the day, it is going to be a nice project.”
On Tuesday hard hat workers in neon-yellow construction vests continued work on the third-story framing with the help of a lift truck. It’s the latest construction project on a stretch of Mill Plain that last year saw the transformation of a 4.5-acre empty lot into a Caraluzzi’s market.
Next door to Caraluzzi’s, a former Duchess restaurant is being rebuilt into a Burger King with “a whole new face.” On Monday the gutted front of the former Duchess restaurant was covered with plywood as workers filled two dumpsters in the front parking lot.
The self-storage facility, which will be operated by Cube Smart, will be a modern, temperature-controlled site, Sommer said.
The project is the latest in a wave of self-storage investments that have been proposed or are underway — mostly on the city’s east end. Near the Bethel border, for example, a Danbury businessman and City Council member is proposing to build a fourth self-storage site on the same block where two other facilities exist and a third is under construction.
Additionally on Sand Pit Road, near Interstate 84, an investor is proposing to raze shops on a 2-acre lot to build a four-story self-storage building, saying the facility would be a “dramatic improvement” for the industrial property.
Why the flurry of self-storage buildings?
One reason is the popularity of condominiums and apartments means people have less space and need extra storage.
“That is one big reason,” Sommer said. “The other reason is people are more transient than they used to be. They don’t live at the same place for 50 years or work at the same place for 50 years the way they used to. Now when they want to leave they leave.”
As a result, Sommer said, people don’t always have the space they need in their new place.
If you’re curious about properties in the Danbury area, nominate a location through our “What’s up with that place?” form and we’ll investigate.
