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A rendering of the street view of the proposed self-storage business to be located at 1420 and 1424 Alexandria Pike. |
Two rental properties on US-27 are slated to be torn down to make space for a new self-storage business that will be part of SafeShip.
Bob Heil, principal, president and CEO of KLH Engineers, submitted a Zone Change & Development Plan on May 16 for 1420 and 1424 Alexandria Pike, two properties located across the street from the Shell gas station on US-27. Each lot contains a single-family home that had previously been used as rental properties. These properties will be torn down.
The two-story building will be accessed by customers from a second-floor entrance at SafeShip's parking lot. The approximately 43,000-square-foot building will contain 140 storage units per floor, ranging in size from 5' x 5' to 10' x 15'. The entire building will be climate controlled, which Bob Heil says is a feature highly desired by self-storage customers.
"As one can see, this building looks nothing like the industrial self-storage businesses most people are accustomed to," Heil says. "We have been very sensitive to the aesthetic of the building, because like our neighbors, we want to see the neighborhood enhanced. We feel like we have been successful in doing so with the other properties we own, 1538 Alexandria Pike (the former IGA building) and SafeShip (the former Anita's restaurant)."
But not everyone is pleased with the proposed development.
"As a long-time resident of Fort Thomas it saddens me to see the landscape of our side of the town change so drastically," says Lori Gibbs, who owns a house on Crowell Ave. "I would think someone would want to rehab those homes as they are in our spectacular school district."
Heil says the location has two distinct advantages. "The first is that our customers will be able to enter a single secure building in one of the safest cities in America; they won't have to travel to an isolated industrial park to access their belongings," he says. "Secondly, SafeShip will be offering 'concierge services,' whereby customers can request that their items be retrieved from their storage lockers and shipped or delivered directly to them."
1420 and 1424 Alexandria Pike are the proposed properties slated for tear down. Google Street View. |
Community members in support of or opposed to this zoning change are invited to a public hearing set for June 20 at the Fort Thomas City Building in the Council Chambers at 6:30 p.m. In addition to the zone change and development plan presented to the Planning Commission, a text amendment that would include a self storage facility as a permitted use in a General Commercial zone will be considered.
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