A new self-storage facility was approved by the Stamford Zoning Board after additional design upgrades were made to a previous plan that board members found unappealing.
Extra Space Storage gained the go-ahead to build a 61,077-square-foot, three-story structure off West Main Street at Commerce Road, with 522 storage units. Three other large storage facilities operated by ESS are already located on the same 4-acre site, which is near the Greenwich border.
The self-storage company added some additional design features to the structure since it was first proposed earlier this summer. Zoning Board members felt the earlier design was substandard and needed improvements, and they requested more texture and additional color on the exterior of the building.
The attorney representing the project, Jason Klein, said the company and its design team “sharpened our pencils on the look of the building” and came back with a new look for the structure.
The new design features trim around the window, cornices, panels and additional blocks of color on the structure. “We worked to get a nice end result for everyone,” Klein said.
“It’s much better looking than what we were presented with originally,” said a Zoning Board member, William Morris.
“I think the end product is a big improvement from where we started,” added David Stein, the board chairman. The board approved the proposal unanimously.
Klein, the attorney representing the project, said the additional facility was needed to “accommodate the growing demand for self-storage in the city.”
The Zoning Board required the planting of 16 trees at the site as a condition of approval. The storage company will also pay $100,000 to the city for the installation of new sidewalks in the area.
The site in the west end of the city was an old warehouse district in the 1950s and 1960s, and it later became a self-storage business in the 1970s and 1980s. The self-storage businesses in the city have been growing in recent years, as part of the expansion of residential construction in Stamford.
