A new four-story self-storage facility has been proposed for Sardis Road, according to plans submitted to the city on Sept. 26. The development will act as a storage unit but will also offer units dedicated to wine fermentation.
The facility, developed by Bee Safe Storage, will be the second Bee Safe Storage in Asheville. Bee Safe has another Asheville storage site, which also acts as a wine cellar, at 1292 Hendersonville Road.
The development is next to DeBruhl’s Used Car Superstore and the Sardis Road and Sand Hill Road intersection.
The facility will include 800 storage units within four stories, according to planning documents. The roughly 109,044-square-foot facility will have a maximum height of 80 feet.
The development proposal includes parking and the installation of a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the south side of Sardis Road. The proposal also includes the installation of a bioretention cell, which is designed to hold and filter stormwater, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
For wine storage, units are kept between 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit and 55%-70% humidity, according to the Bee Safe Storage website.
Prior to going under contract for the self-storage site, the 2.34-acre property had been listed online at an asking price of $1.05 million, according to Keller Williams Realty’s website.
The storage unit will require conditional rezoning, which is the highest level permit approval required at the city level. The conditional rezoning proposal will have to go through the Technical Review Committee and Planning and Zoning Commission before going to Asheville City Council for final approval.
Bee Safe Storage is a subsidiary of The Carroll Companies, a Greensboro-based real estate development and management company.
RE Carroll Management, another subsidiary of The Carroll Companies, manages three apartment complexes in the Asheville area — including Greymont Village, a complex less than a mile away from the proposed Bee Safe Storage.
There are two storage units within a mile of the site for the new Bee Safe Storage — AAA Storage World and Asheville Mini Storage — along with another storage unit, SmartStop Self Storage, a mile farther on the corner of Sardis Road and Brevard Road.
Recent data has indicated that Asheville remains a location of high interest for those moving from in and out of state. A 2023 report from moveBuddha indicates that for every 100 people interested in moving out of the area, 280 are interested in moving to the area.
Similarly, PODS — an at-home storage and moving service — reported that Asheville had the 17th highest number of move-ins in the country for those using their service.
The development is set to go before the Technical Review Committee on Nov. 6.
