Warren Facility:
U-Haul Moving & Storage of Warren North has acquired the former Tops Friendly Market grocery store and Chase bank building at the intersection of Elm and North River roads with plans to repurpose the empty retail lot into a self-storage facility.
U-Haul plans for the addition of 1,000 indoor climate-controlled self-storage units, according to a news release from the company. The 69,000-square-foot complex also will have a warehouse that can store up to 500 U-Haul portable moving and storage containers.
Renovations will begin immediately and are expected to be completed by next summer. When done, the facility will offer other services, including hitch installation and propane. In the meantime, U-Haul has opened a temporary retail showroom.
The buildings at the busy intersection have been vacant for years.
“The demand for U-Haul products and services is growing rapidly in Warren,” Alissa Nider, president, U-Haul Company of Akron, said in the release. “We are excited to refurbish this abandoned lot to create something useful and highly requested by the community.”
The company plans to hire up to 10 people to staff the new store.
The 7.8-acre property was purchased July 30, according to the company. The sale price was not disclosed.
According to the Trumbull County Auditor’s Office, the transaction between Elmhurst Properties Inc. and Amerco Real Estate Company was recorded July 24 for $3.2 million.
Amerco Real Estate Company, based in Phoenix, provides real estate and development services to U-Haul.
The auditor’s office shows Amerco Real Estate acquired three parcels: 1.1 acres at 3394 North River Road, the former Chase building; 1.09 acres at 3406 Elm Road; and 5.56 acres at 2425 North River Road, the former grocery store building.
The land is in Howland. The supermarket was built in 1996 and the bank building in 1998
The auditor’s office also shows Amerco Real Estate Company owns 1.84 acres at 644 S. Main St., Warren, another U-Haul retail location.
Nider said the Main Street facility will remain open once the Elm Road site is complete.
Youngstown Facility:
In Youngstown, U-Haul Storage of Youngstown recently bought the Ward Bakery building downtown, which was used as rental space by artists for decades. Similarly, the plan is to convert it into a self-storage facility.
U-Haul plans renovate the building at 1024 Mahoning Ave. and open in spring 2025 with up to 800 climate-controlled storage units with the exterior “preserved to maintain as much of the original character as possible,” according to a Wednesday statement from the company.
The building is located across the street from a U-Haul storage facility and truck rental business at the former Isaly Dairy plant. The plant stopped making ice cream there in 1969. The building was vacant until 1987 when U-Haul bought it.
The company will hire up to six employees for the new location, Nider said.
The building sale was finalized July 22 and announced Wednesday by U-Haul. The sale price wasn’t disclosed Wednesday.
The Mahoning County Auditor’s Office’s website on Monday still showed Ward Riverworks LLC, operated by Tamara and James Deeley, as the property’s owners.
Ward Bakery closed its business in the 1960s. For about the past 50 years, it was used as rental space for various artists and opened a few times a year to the public for artists to sell their wares though it hasn’t done so since 2022.
The dozen or so artists who rented space at Ward — some for decades — were informed in an April 8 letter by the Deeleys that the 101-year-old building was sold and the new owners were evicting them, effective June 10.
