Peter Issa developing mini-storage complex
Published:Tuesday | July 28, 2015 | 1:37 PMTameka Gordon
Peter Issa is scoping out land in Barbican, Kingston, to be used for the development of storage space for personal and commercial items on a small scale.
The storage units ranging in size up to 320 square feet will sit on a half-acre property that Issa says he is in the final stages of acquiring.
The price of the land was not disclosed, but the overall project is costed at around US$500,000 to US$600,000 ($58 million to $70 million) and is backed by several investors, said Issa, who is the son of well-known realtor Andrew Issa of Coldwell Banker Jamaica.
"The lawyers are working on the possession of the land. I am just working on the final costing and doing a layout of the land to try to maximise how many containers we can fit on it," Issa told Wednesday Business.
The mini-stoarage complex should be ready by September and will offer short- and long-term rentals. The target market is "anybody who needs extra space in whatever they are doing" he said, noting that commercial clients, for example, may consider using the space to store files.
"The facility is going to be containers that will be split up into sizes ranging from 25 square feet to about 320 square feet. Just visualise 40-foot and 20-foot containers positioned around a half-acre lot," said Issa.
"I'm going to section them off and then have, like, loading docks."
A 40-foot container is likely to be split into five compartments, each having its own shutter, the businessman said.
"For commercial rentals, you could store your files there if you don't have enough space in your office and then you could send your bearer there to pick up certain things. So it would be like a filing cabinet outside of your location," he said.
A 320-square foot unit would be equivalent to a 40-foot container and will cost roughly $30,000 to $35,000 per month to rent, he said. Units may also be rented on an annual basis
Persons who are migrating or moving house may store furniture and household items.
"If you are moving like a three bedroom house, you will need, like, 100 square feet," said Issa.
Issa, who is also construction project manager at Russell Brow Limited, said he is focusing on the "smaller end" of the space rental market.
"We are not going above that because it is going to be a mini storage facility. So it's not going to be like a full warehouse space, which is like 3,000 square feet," he said.
Additional locations may be considered "depending on how this one does", he said noting that press advertisement placed in the last few weeks are aimed at assessing the market.