A storage owner thinks in rentable square feet, not building square feet. That is the number that decides whether a project pays. A row of ten by twenty units with a six-foot drive aisle looks simple on a sketch, but the width of the building, the door size, the roof slope and the way water leaves the site all change how many units you can sell and how long they take to build.
Steel is the natural material for storage. A pre-engineered frame spans cleanly, goes up fast, and the repeating bays fit a unit layout almost perfectly. We build drive-up unit rows, enclosed climate-controlled buildings, RV and boat storage, and conversions of older buildings into storage. We also build mixed projects where one side holds units and the other is a small office or a warehouse space.
We write this page for owners and investors who want to understand where the money goes.
Storage follows traffic and rooftops. Yukon is an example: the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber lists the I-40 and Garth Brooks Boulevard trade area at 55,200 vehicles per day, which tells a developer something about visibility and customer flow. Our Yukon page covers that corner of the metro in more detail. In Owasso, ODOT's plan to widen US-169 to six lanes notes traffic of about 60,000 vehicles a day in 2019 rising to about 75,000 today, a sign of how fast the Tulsa suburbs have grown. See also Owasso.
Growth of households matters too. Mustang's population reached 19,879 at the 2020 census, up from 17,398 in 2010, a gain of about 14 percent according to Wikipedia. More households mean more garages that are full, more moves, more small businesses needing a place for stock. We do not forecast rents, and you should get a market study before you buy land, but we can tell you what a given layout will cost to build. For the operator's view, read self-storage operators.
Site work can rival the building. Grading, drainage, paving or compacted base, gates, fencing and lighting add up quickly on a long narrow site. Then the building itself: frame, roof, wall panels, unit partitions and doors. The number of doors drives much of the cost, since each unit has one. Standard sizes keep that in check; odd sizes cost more.
Climate control changes the picture entirely. Insulation, heating and cooling, interior hallways and fire protection add cost and complexity, and the finish can be more like an office building than a shed. Our insulated metal panels page covers wall options. Many owners build a mix: drive-up units that cost least, and a smaller climate-controlled building where rents are higher.
Drive-up rows are the staple. Two rows of units face a shared aisle between long buildings, usually 24 to 30 feet apart so trucks and trailers can turn. Single-load rows, with doors on one side only, save width and work on narrow lots. Enclosed buildings put units on both sides of a hallway, with roll-up doors inside, and get a lobby, elevator or stair if more than one floor.
RV, boat and vehicle storage are different again. They want tall, wide, simple bays with large doors, so the frame is more like a hangar or a shed than a unit row. Our overhead and hangar doors page explains the door types. A few buyers also add a second floor of units using a steel platform, and we price that through mezzanines and platforms.
The more repetition, the cheaper the job. We lay out a single module, a bay width and door size, then repeat it. Frame spacing lines up with the partitions, so no column lands in the middle of a unit. We pour the slab with a slight slope for drainage and set the door jambs to the same plane on every unit, which makes install fast and the look clean.
The final details count: corner guards, downspouts, gutters, lighting, a clear address and unit number system, and gate access. We walk the site with you before opening, check every door for smooth action and every seal for gaps. A leaky unit in the first month costs you a tenant and a reputation.
Many owners build in phases. Phase one gets the office and the first rows open and earning, and later phases follow as units lease. The key is to put the utilities, drainage and paving for the whole site in once, so the second building does not tear up the first. We show you what that costs and what it saves.
A typical schedule runs: permits, grading, slab, steel, panels, doors, then paving and striping. Steel lead time varies, so we order early. Weather can pause the slab and the paving, and we plan around the rainy spring months so you open before the summer moving season.
If your site also needs a small office or a workshop for maintenance, we can build it as a commercial metal building on the same property. Some owners add a warehouse bay for business storage, which looks like our warehouse shell work. We can quote the pieces together or separately.
If you are converting an old building, we review the structure, roof and slab to see whether it can hold unit partitions, and what a retrofit would involve. Not every older building is worth saving, and we will say so.
Send us the land, the unit sizes and the phasing you have in mind. We will sketch the layout and give you a first-pass number you can take to a lender. Start with the self-storage facility building type overview if you want the basics, then call us about your site.
The answer depends on the unit mix, the site work and whether you want climate control. Drive-up units cost the least per rentable foot; enclosed climate-controlled units cost the most. We give a line-item estimate once we know your land, your unit sizes and your local codes.
Most owners lean on ten by ten, ten by fifteen and ten by twenty units, with some larger drive-up spaces. A market study or a look at your local competitors is the best guide. We build to the mix you choose and can adapt the door and partition layout.
It depends on the building size, the use and the local fire marshal. Many drive-up buildings do not, while larger enclosed buildings may. Confirm with the city or county early, because it changes the cost and the water service you need.
Yes, and many owners do. The trick is to plan the whole site first: drainage, utilities, driveways and paving. Then each building can be added without rebuilding the last one.
Standard roll-up doors in a common width and height are the best value. Heavier-gauge doors resist dents from carts and trucks. Color choices help branding and cost very little.
Tell us about the site, the building and the schedule, and we will set up a review of scope, schedule and permitting.
See the services, building types and industries we plan and manage across Oklahoma.