The Hampshire Cos. has acquired a former armory building in Elizabeth, intending to redevelop it into a self-storage facility, the real estate investment firm announced.
The property at 1189 Magnolia Ave. was built in 1912 in the heart of downtown Elizabeth. Morristown-based Hampshire intends to honor the history of the site by preserving its historic façade and exterior, while creating a 100,000-square-foot, three-level self-storage facility on the interior.
Extra Space Storage, a top self-storage real estate investment trust, will manage the property.
“As we embarked on the design of this project, the uniqueness of the building created a highly unique and complex set of challenges,” James E. Hanson II, Hampshire’s CEO and president, said in a prepared statement. “However, our self-storage team has been able to apply the lessons from the dozens of projects that will allow us to deliver a first-class, institutional quality asset and valuable community amenity to an underserved market.”
Hampshire has repositioned or developed 33 self-storage facilities since 2012, and has 13 projects currently underway, with 14 more in the pipeline.
“Upon an initial viewing of the building, many might not see self-storage conversion as a natural fit,” Michael Legacki, Hampshire’s senior acquisitions manager, said in a statement. “Our ability to identify real estate through our experienced-backed site selection and due diligence process allowed our team to recognize that this space presented an ideal opportunity to bring a modern self-storage asset to an underserved market.”
