New business opens in historic Oxford building


OXFORD STORAGE SOLUTIONS

WHERE: 801 S. Beech St.

HOURS: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Gate access for customers is limited to 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

PHONE: 513-523-3566

MORE INFO: www.oxfordstorageoh.com or email steve@oxfordstorageoh.com

The opening earlier this year of a business has brought new life to one of the city’s historic buildings.

Susie and Steve Sadler purchased the former Capital dry cleaning facility at 801 S. Beech St. in June of last year and spent months renovating it for the May opening of Oxford Storage Solutions, an indoor climate-controlled storage facility.

The building has seen several other short-lived uses since closing as a drycleaning business and the Sadlers saw the potential for a long-term use providing storage units. He gave up a job in the natural and organic food business and they were looking for a business opportunity.

Steve Sadler found it while attending a storage business trade conference in Indiana, where he learned there is more money spent on the storage industry than the film industry in the country and square footage per person is growing rapidly.

“Part of the trend is repurposing buildings for inside storage, ” he said.

Susie Sadler is the former Susie Brower and grew up in Oxford. She is a 1984 graduate of Miami University and currently Senior Director of Development at the university.

“We are good friends with the Pulleys. It’s great we were able to do this, ” she said. “The idea started with Jeff Pulley. The Pulleys knew they wanted to do something with it but Jeff knew he could not operate from a distance.”

Since the current storage units are all indoors, they are climate controlled and not affected by the weather. They have 54 units, which are approximately 30 percent rented, and still have a large warehouse area to be developed in the future.

Currently, it is used for storage of large items, including a couple vehicles.

Available units range in size from 10-feet by 5-feet to 10-feet by 10-feet. Larger units have wide doors to allow easy access for storage of furniture. There is also a garage area for unloading out of the weather and they provide carts and dollies for use in moving items around the building.

They sell a limited line of packing supplies as well as mattress covers and locks. They are also a U-Haul affiliate, although not for rental of vehicles, providing boxes and some other items from that firm, but that gives them access to U-Haul’s software program which allows for some other conveniences.

They can offer on-line bill payment and auto-pay for customers to pay their monthly rental fees and Steve Sadler estimated 90 percent of their customers use that auto-pay option.

The Sadlers also serve as a location to accept UPS and FedEx deliveries as a customer service.

Uses for the storage units are widely varied. They offer a place for homeowners to “declutter” their homes either just to get things out of the way or to improve the appearance while showing their home to potential buyers. Miami students can store things over the summer rather than taking them home and bringing them back for the fall. They also serve several sales reps who store their samples in town until needed and having the units climate-controlled allows for record storage for businesses or organizations.

What they have now is the first phase of what the Sadlers expect will be a growing operation. The building sits on just over two acres of land, including a triangle of land across the street bounded by railroad tracks, and they see the addition of outdoor units in the future, with secure fencing and gating for protection. The warehouse area will also allow more indoor units to be added when existing space is taken.

“We know as we add the self-storage piece, we will add employees, ” Susie Sadler said. “We wanted to provide options for our customers.”

Steve Sadler points to a video board near the door he can watch from his desk with several interior and exterior views of the building. He said it is a state-of-the-art security system and they also have an alarm system.

The business does not offer customers 24-hour access.

“It is (located in) a neighborhood. When we went to zoning, they did not want 24-hour (access). That is definitely helpful for the neighborhood. We want to keep the neighbors happy, ” Steve Sadler said.

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