San Antonio Storage
Drive-up self-storage with a partial second level · San Antonio, TX
San Antonio Storage is an 816-unit self-storage facility on Loop 1604 in San Antonio, Texas, and it was our first project in Texas. It is one 98,788 SF building on 6.87 acres. Most of it is a single story, with drive-up units on all four sides and climate-controlled halls inside, plus a small second level over the office. We designed it for Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company, and it opened as Public Storage in January 2025.
The site sits back from Loop 1604 with a smaller building in front of it, so getting it seen took some thought. The two-story glass office end is as much about marketing as anything. Since the owner was paying for that structure anyway, we fit a floor of small units up there too.
We ran the project from Salt Lake City the same way we run most of our storage work, which is outside Utah: local civil and structural engineers, weekly calls, a video call whenever something came up, and a site visit about once a month through construction.
Project Stats
Status | Completed - January 2025
Location | 730 W Loop 1604 N, San Antonio, TX
Building Size | 98,788 SF
Site Size | 6.87 acres
Number of Units | 816
Stories | 1, plus a partial second level of small units
Construction | Type II-B, fully sprinklered
Operator | Public Storage
Design Schedule | May 2022 - Mar 2023
Permitting | Mar 2023 - Aug 2023
Construction Schedule | Aug 2023 - Jan 2025
About the Design
One Level Was the Right Size
Patagon's own numbers told them a multi-story building would have been too big for this market. The site they picked had room for all of the square feet they needed on one level, so there was no reason to stack it.
Drive-Up on All Four Sides
Staying on one level let us run a drive aisle around all four sides of the building and line almost the whole outside wall with drive-up doors. That gave the facility a high share of drive-up units, and that helped push up the average rent per square foot. The rest of the units are inside, off climate-controlled halls.
A Second Story to Be Seen
Visibility from Loop 1604 was OK, but not great. The second story at the office end is what really gets the building seen from the road. The owner also wanted something back for that extra structure, so we carefully laid out a second-level area that meets code with a single stair and no elevator. Without an elevator, small units were clearly the right size up there.
Four Rounds of Exteriors
We went through four rounds of exterior options with the owner in August 2022 before settling on the glass office end and long, simple drive-up wings.
Working With the City
Learning a New City
Most of our storage work is outside Utah, so digging through a city's zoning code and talking with its staff early is a normal part of every job for us. (More on how we handle zoning and permits on our Services page.) The site is zoned C-3, which allows self-storage, so this one needed no variance or rezoning. San Antonio wanted the whole permit package at one time, and in Texas accessibility gets its own state review (TDLR), separate from the city's permit review.
Bigger Detention Than Expected
This was our first project in Texas, and the storm detention came out quite a bit bigger than we expected.
A Cave Under the Drive Aisle
Partway through construction, a small cave was found beneath one of the drive aisles. We worked with the owner, the civil engineer and the environmental consultants to leave it undisturbed, reworking the drive aisle, a few doors and the drainage around a capped entry.
Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company set the goals and ran the development. Two San Antonio firms, Macina Bose Copeland & Associates and Danysh & Associates, did the civil and structural engineering and knew how the city wants things done. Royal Engineering did the MEP, Cooper Lochte did the landscape, and CAPCO General Contracting built it.
Thanks to everyone who worked on San Antonio Storage. Their names and links are below.
A Collaborative Effort
Design Team
Construction Team
General Contractor | CAPCO General Contracting
Stakeholders
Architecture Project Management
Architecture Team
Principal in Charge & Architect of Record | Jarod Hall
Project Manager | Ethan Barley
Support Staff | Chris Wheeler, Nour Eldin, Jeremy Larsen
Project Scope
Building Design (SD, DD, CD) | Full building design, from the first layout and four rounds of exterior options through construction documents.
Permitting | City of San Antonio building and site permits, plus the Texas accessibility (TDLR) review.
Construction Administration (CA) | Weekly calls, monthly site visits, submittals and RFIs, and changes during construction, through the temporary certificate of occupancy and closeout.
Looking Ahead
Patagon Ventures and The Boyer Company have hired di'velept on a lot of self-storage projects. They tell us it's because we know storage, we work through hard sites, and we answer fast. WACO in Pennsylvania is another one of theirs, with drive-up access on two floors.
Most of our storage clients are out of state, and San Antonio is a pretty typical example of how we work with them. We read the city's code before the first meeting, and we're on a video call whenever something comes up instead of waiting for the weekly meeting. Weekly calls plus a site visit about once a month is the right pace for storage. It keeps us close to what's happening on site, helps the owner get ready for what's coming next, and lets us catch things that drift from the plans early, before they turn into real problems. We usually recommend that the owner hire a local civil engineer who knows how the city likes its utility details done (on storage it's even better when that civil firm can do the landscape too).
If you have a storage site in another state, we'd like to talk it through with you. There's more of our work on the Self-Storage page.