NEBE Storage
Self-storage built inside a vacant industrial building · New Bedford, MA
NEBE is a 467-unit, climate-controlled self-storage facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It sits inside a building that was empty when we found it: a former fish processing plant (and a manufacturing business before that) on a busy corner near the I-195 ramps. Part of the roof had fallen in, and there were trees growing inside the walls.
The owners, Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company, first planned to knock it down and build a new three-story facility. We drew both options. Keeping the old building and roofing over the collapsed part was the better deal, and the project opened as Life Storage.
Project Stats
Status | Completed - March 2022
Location | 8 Washburn Street, New Bedford, MA
Building Size | 53,781 SF
Existing / New | About 36,800 SF reused + about 17,000 SF new
Site Size | 1.59 acres
Number of Units | 467
Stories | 1
Storage Types | Climate-controlled, interior corridors
Operator | Life Storage
Design Schedule | Aug 2018 - Jul 2019
Construction Schedule | Feb 2020 - Mar 2022
About the Design
Two Options on the Table
In September 2018 we drew the site two ways. Option 1 kept the existing building, put a roof over the part that had collapsed, and stayed on one floor, with new windows cut into the old concrete walls. Option 2 tore the building down and put up a new three-story storage facility. We took both to the city before anyone picked one.
More Square Feet Isn't Always More Profit
A new three-story building would have held a lot more square footage. It also would have meant digging into a site with potential soil issues, and nobody could say what that would cost until the digging started. Reusing the building cost less per square foot, it built faster, and it left the ground mostly alone. The smaller project made more sense.
Starting With the City
Before the design was set, we asked for a meeting with New Bedford's Permitting Task Force and brought both options. About ten people from different city departments sat in. We didn't go alone. di'velept, Bracken Engineering (the civil engineer) and the owner were all at the table, so what the city said got heard by the people who would act on it, and nothing got lost passing it along afterward. We had also done our code research before the meeting. That meant we could ask the questions that would decide the project (setbacks, what was allowed in the yards, parking, which approval path each option would take) and could tell when a request wasn't actually in the city's code. It came up again at the building permit: the city first said the project needed a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals, and after we pointed out that the overlay district already covered it, the city agreed none was needed.
Keeping the Building, Meeting the Zoning
The site is zoned Industrial B and sits in the Hicks-Logan-Sawyer Interim Planning Overlay District. The overlay lets the Planning Board adjust setbacks, coverage and parking for projects that meet the district's goals. A new building would have had to sit back 25 feet from both streets. Keeping the old walls kept the building right on the property lines, at about 78% lot coverage where the normal limit is 50%. Parking was the other big one. The ordinance has no category for self-storage, and the closest one called for 142 spaces. A storage facility gets a few dozen trips a day, so we provided 13.
Windows to the Street
The overlay district wants buildings to hold the edge of the street, and it doesn't want blank walls. The old building held the edge fine. It was also one long blank concrete wall. We cut openings in the wall around the parking area so people on the sidewalk can see the new landscaping inside, and added a row of windows that looks into a hallway of storage units. The street side also got faux unit doors set into new metal panel, a saw-cut and painted pattern on the old concrete, and one pedestrian entrance off the sidewalk.
Inside the Old Walls
The units are inside the existing walls. The new addition fills in the part of the building that had lost its roof. It's all one level, with climate-controlled interior corridors under the building's original steel roof structure. The old sunken loading dock became at-grade loading next to the parking.
Stormwater, Sidewalks and Street Trees
Before this project, rain ran off the site untreated. Now it goes through biofiltration areas and an underground recharge system before it reaches the city's storm drains. Both streets got new sidewalks, a grass strip and 13 street trees.
Approval
The New Bedford Planning Board heard the project in June and July of 2019. Between the two hearings we worked with Bracken Engineering to answer the staff and public works comments, adding lighting, landscaping, fencing and sidewalk details. The Board approved the special permit 5-0.
Every successful project is the result of teams of talented people working together in order to make the project a success. The owners and stakeholder groups play a huge role in defining the goals and objectives of the project. It is their vision for what they want to accomplish that really allows us to be successful in our work. Architects and Engineers make up the design team that is responsible for planning out and documenting everything that goes into making a building. Once the project is fully documented it is then in the hands of skilled craftsmen and trade workers who make up the construction team that physically brings the design into existence.
We would like to thank all of those who worked on this project to make our vision a reality by giving credit here with links to their websites.
A Collaborative Effort
Design Team
Structural | RBE Consulting Services, LLC
MEP | GNA Engineering
Civil | Bracken Engineering, Inc.
Geotechnical | McArdle Gannon Associates
Construction Team
General Contractor | Boardwalk Storage Solutions LLC
Stakeholders
Architecture Project Management
Architecture Team
Managing Principal, Architect
& Project Manager | Jarod Hall
Designer | Jeremy Larsen
Support Staff | Ethan Barley, Marin Smith
Project Scope
Site Studies & Options | We tested the site both ways, as a new three-story building and as a reuse of the existing one, and took both options to the city's Permitting Task Force.
Approvals | With the owners and Bracken Engineering, we took the project through Site Plan Review and a Special Permit under the Hicks-Logan-Sawyer overlay district.
Building Design (SD, DD, CD) | Full building design services, from the first schematic concept through design development and a complete set of construction documents.
Construction Administration (CA) | We made site visits from the start of construction to the end, answered questions from the field, and walked the final punch list with the owner and contractor.
Looking Ahead
Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company have hired di'velept on a lot of self-storage projects, before NEBE and after it. They tell us it's because we know storage, we work through hard sites, and we answer fast.
NEBE put an empty, half-roofless building on a busy corridor back to work. If you have a storage site with an old building on it, we'd like to help you test the options, new and reused, and figure out which one actually pays. Thanks for reading about this project. There's more of our self-storage work on the pages that follow.