2004 Facility of the Year Overall Winner

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Known as one of the oldest and largest real estate developers in New Orleans, the Lauricella Land Company started developing residential properties in the 1940s. The third-generation, family-owned business moved into commercial real estate when it built a shopping center near one of its early residential subdivisions. Since that time, the company’ s list of achievements includes four major retail shopping centers, two office buildings, an Airborne Express distribution center, and five multi-screen movie complexes that were recently sold to AMC Theaters Inc. Its developmental holdings also include two hotels and three multi-family complexes with joint-venture partners. Lauricella’ s newest project, however, is a first-time venture into the business of storage, with Elmwood Self Storage & Wine Cellar in New Orleans, La., an incredible state-of-the-art facility located in the massive 53.17-acre Elmwood Shopping Center.

Converted from the former Michael Hebert Furniture Store and Warehouse that had become an eyesore after sitting vacant for seven years, there were many design and operational challenges that needed to be overcome in order to successfully develop this property. Thanks to extensive strategic planning and exceptional teamwork, that mission was accomplished. The result is a stunning, first-class self-storage center that combines traditional storage with an elegant wine cellar and state-of-the art, high-security vault and gun storage. As such, it is indeed fitting that Elmwood Self Storage & Wine Cellar be named as the 2004 Mini-Storage Messenger Facility of the Year Overall Winner.

Having The Perfect Site

Most self-storage developers go to great lengths to find the perfect site. But how often is it that one discovers they already own the perfect site in practically every sense of the word? That’ s exactly what happened to Lauricella Land Company Director of Project Management Al Gardes when he attended a Self Storage Association Developer’ s Seminar and listened to industry veteran Buzz Victor outline the components of the perfect self-storage site. I sat there and listened to him, and I said, wait a minute, we have that! Wait a minute, we have that too,’ says Gardes. My eyes lit up as I realized that we may be further along than we thought.

The roof had failed and needed to be replaced, as did most of the electrical and mechanical components.

Located in the heart of New Orleans’ retail district at the foot of the Huey P. Long Bridge—one of only two bridges that cross the Mississippi River in the city–the site has five major arterial highways surrounding or spilling into it with exposure to 235,000 cars a day. More than 325,000 people with a median household income of $55,000 live within a five-mile radius, with the nearby Elmwood Business Park employing more than 30,000 people. Also within that radius are 47 apartment complexes, with 2,400 of the highest rent apartments in New Orleans located within one mile of the site. The site is also centrally located within 15 minutes of the city’ s affluent Old Metairie, uptown, mid-city, downtown, and Metairie lakefront, not to mention Kenner, Harahan/River Ridge, and the fast growing Westbank area.

The Great Challenge

Gardes and Lauricella Land Company knew that they didn’t want to build just any self-storage facility. Instead, they wanted to make their white elephant the finest self-storage facility in the region—one that would elicit a Wow! response from everyone who saw it. After reading an article in the Wall Street Journal, Gardes turned to Bruce Jordan of Jordan Architects, Inc., in San Clemente, Calif. who acted as the consulting design architect for the project, offering extensive plans for the layout and design of the three-story portion of the warehouse, the wine cellar, and the rental office. Keeping the job local, Morton-Verges Architects in New Orleans were the architects of record, finalizing the project and seeing it through completion.

Chip Verges, principal in charge at Morton-Verges, says nearly everything about the project was a challenge, especially given that the nondescript, pre cast, 120,000-square-foot building was in such poor condition. The roof had failed and needed to be replaced, as did most of the electrical and mechanical components. Added to the complexity, it was housed within three different-sized, connecting, steel-framed structures enclosed in tilt-up concrete panels of differing heights.

We also had warehouse loading docks to deal with, plus, the entire parking lot had sunk between 12 and 18 inches, so we had to work the driveways in such a way that tenants would be able to drive in and out of the drive-through portion of the building, says Verges. Additionally, with no existing windows, the original warehouse was indeed dark and dreary. In fact, Verges likened it to walking into a cave. As such, multiple concrete panels had to be either removed entirely or cut down and reinstalled to allow for glass inserts, doors, and windows.

The project hinged, however, on whether the clear-story, 35-foot tall, warehouse could be converted into a three-story storage building. That was no easy task. Due to swampy soil in New Orleans, pilings must be driven into the ground to support the foundation; trying to increase the load on the original foundation was extremely cost prohibitive. The solution came from Round Rock, Texas-based Avid Building Systems, a company that specializes in economically structuring additional floors within older buildings. We were instrumental in designing the actual structure—the decking and the columns—for the three-story building, says Rick Keeton, owner of Avid, who says the building was a definite challenge.

Avid worked hand in hand with Ryan Myers and F.H. Myers Construction, the local general contractor for the project. Jim Ponti, regional sales manager of Temple, Ga.-based Janus International, the company that supplied the facility’ s dead-axle system doors and flush hallway interior system, also acted as an independent consultant on the project.

By utilizing the red iron structural metal studs that framed each self-storage unit to support the upper poured-concrete floors, the load could be spread out over the entire existing lower floor at some 800 to 1,000 points as opposed to a traditional system where the weight would be supported at 8 to 10 points, says Ponti.

Another challenge was converting the much-neglected third portion of the building—a 25-year-old, bump-out addition to the original showroom—into 10,000 square feet of mixed-use retail space that would complement the self-storage facility yet still have its own identity. As such, Mike Roussel, project architect and project designer at Morton-Verges Architects, had to take some of the self-storage design elements and incorporate them into the retail spaces. Additionally, the building’ s exterior wall had to be removed in order to add four feet to the front of the building to achieve 40-foot-deep retail spaces. The original tilt-up wall between the mixed-use retail building and the self-storage portion of the center ended up being an advantage since it acted as the separation wall required by code.

The retail tenants in this area will bring additional foot traffic and vehicular traffic to the overall site, Gardes says. We feel that a certain number of them will ultimately see the self-storage portion of the site and rent from us down the line.

That was part of our overall strategy from the very beginning. Already, spaces are leased and in the process of being built out for a restaurant, a financial institution, and a national coffee chain, with the remaining spaces expected to be fully leased by year end.

Adding to its uniqueness, the facility was designed to include a state-of-the-art wine cellar, and a vault storage section with safe deposit boxes and custom-made gun cabinets. New Orleans is such a famous area for food, wine, and good times, that having a wine cellar made sense, says Gardes. Not only would it give us a marketing edge, but there also wasn’ t any competition.

The Incredible Transformation

Opened in February of 2004, Elmwood Self Storage & Wine Cellar is a far cry from the dark, windowless building it started out as. First, frontage concrete was replaced with a beautiful glass wall that shows off the stairway behind it—one that is incredibly accentuated by interior and exterior lights at night. Also lit at night and adding to the beauty of the building are glass windows strategically placed at the end of each corridor in the 200-by-280-foot, three-story building. Breaking up the long, horizontal appearance of the site is a clock tower at the southeast corner of the building. It has become a focal point for the project and the adjacent shopping center, and can be seen from four blocks away. Additionally, the design character of the tower was carried through to the opposite side of the building and forms an anchor for the retail side.

Also unique, Elmwood Self Storage was built around a New Orleans theme with the facility divided into local neighborhoods that customers will easily recognize. Within those neighborhoods—the French Quarter, Uptown, Downtown, and Mid-City—each corridor is aptly named after a well-known street marked with custom-made metallic street signs at each intersection. Found in the French Quarter, for instance, are Bourbon Street, Canal Street, and Royal Street, while St. Charles Avenue is located Uptown, and Girod Street can be found Downtown. Large floor-plan maps in light boxes are also located throughout the facility, guiding customers to their units with ease. Continuing the theme, custom-made metallic numbers and the facility logo identify each and unit.

Another successful part of this project is the 280-foot interior drive-through access located in the one-story portion of the building. Once inside, customers can securely load and unload out of the weather, which is important since New Orleans gets a lot of rain. This area has access doors at both ends, is extremely well lit, climate controlled, and well ventilated with a carbon monoxide detector. Restrooms for customers, a water cooler, and a beverage machine are also conveniently located here.

The facility’ s 1,700-square-foot office, strategically designed to look more like the reception area of a first-class hotel than that of a self-storage facility, includes tri-colored marble flooring, and a curved, custom-crafted mahogany check-in counter. Beautifully papered walls, leather seating, exquisite lighting, and a mahogany hutch that houses a 36-inch television and kid-friendly video games add to the facility’ s wow factor. For manager convenience, a supply room/kitchenette/break room is incorporated into the office, as well as a data wiring closet.

Adjacent to the office is a professional conference room, offered as an added perk for business tenants who make up 35 percent of the facility’ s customer base—a number that Gardes’ plans to increase given the facility’ s location and the amenities it offers including the tractor-trailer loading bays that were part of the original warehouse. Some of our business customers have tractor trailer deliveries, he says. The trucks can back right up to the loading bay where we have hydraulic lifts so they can lift pallets right off the truck.

Climate-controlled units have also been a draw for the areas pharmaceutical reps who enjoy the added convenience of the conference room, individual workstations with high-speed Internet access, and a phone system that allows them to call their corporate office anywhere in the world and receive a bill once the call is completed—they can either pay it then or forward it to their office for payment.

Top Notch Security

Wanting the latest in security technology, Gardes turned to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based PTI Integrated Systems. Installed by Electric Gates and Access Control Systems, Inc., the PTI system includes more than 100 cameras, individual door alarms on every unit, two Bioscript Biometric Readers for the wine cellar and vault storage areas, 20 PTI Apex Keypads with proximity readers and intercoms, and two additional keypads that have color cameras. The self-storage site is equipped with seven digital video recorders, three flat panel monitors, and a 42-inch plasma screen for graphics display in the office.

We also put in a 40-station music system that is separate from the intercom, says PTI East Senior Project Manager Curtis Hudson, who likens this project to Storage USA Flatbush, 2002 Facility of the Year Conversion Winner. Flatbush pushed the edge, and things that were state-of-the-art then are standard now. Elmwood Self Storage is going to be just like that.

Hudson can’ t say enough about working with Gardes. No matter what it was, he wanted to at least hear about it in terms of the ‘cool factor’ and what it was going to do for his facility, he explains. Nothing was out of bounds. He’ d say Tell me about it and how much it is, then I’ ll figure out if I can afford it.’

Wine Cellar & Vault Storage

Not just wanting standard wine storage, Gardes and Lauricella went first class all the way. Working closely with one of the largest wine cellar design and supply houses in the country, no expense was spared in an effort to please even the most discriminating wine connoisseur. The entrance to the 730-square-foot wine cellar is guarded by an exquisite bronze door that was hand-crafted in Mexico and is decorated with intricate brass grapevines. The etched glass panels, stained-glass ceiling, and hand-painted, hand-fired floor tiles were also custom made specifically for the Elmwood wine cellar, as were the 43 mahogany lockers that come in three different sizes to accommodate 16, 32, or 64 cases of wine.

In addition to the primary mechanical system that keeps the wine cellar at 55 degrees and 70-percent relative humidity, there is a $35,000 back-up generator that ensures continued electricity in the event of a power failure. If you sell wine, one of the primary questions that a buyer asks is about the history of how the wine was stored, says Gardes, explaining that the wine cellar has a separate gauge that measures the exact temperature and humidity every minute of every day perpetually. I can print out a report showing our tenants the complete background of how their wine was stored since the day it came to us.

The vault storage and gun cabinets at Elmwood serve a dual purpose. These areas were really built as a potential expansion area for the wine cellar, says Gardes. It is the same exact size as the wine storage area, on the other side of a common wall. With all of the insulation and mechanical components in place, the space is ready to be converted into additional wine storage should the need arise. In the meantime, the area houses safe deposit boxes and a limited number of very exclusive custom-made gun cabinets, all located behind a $10,000, stainless steel, bank vault door. It takes multiple steps to open it, just like in a bank, says Gardes. We lock it up at night; it even has day gate.

The 214 stainless steel, fire-proof safe deposit boxes come in a variety of sizes ranging from three-inches-by-five-inches, to 39-inches-by-22-inches, all of which have a 21-inch depth. The 20 mahogany gun cabinets, custom built for serious collectors who want high-security storage, include a top section for rifles and a lower section for pistols. Like the wine cellar, goods in this area are protected by both keypad access and biometric scanning; customers also have 24-hour access to this area through a private exterior door.

Marketing Magic

Anne Ballard and David Dixon of Smyrna-Ga.-based Universal Management Company both agree that turning a nasty, empty warehouse into a rose took a lot planning, hard work, ingenious design, and long meetings. Brought on board with the project in April of 2002, the team at Universal was able to offer their input on all stages of the development. Al [Gardes] gave us all of the right tools, says Ballard. Usually we go in with our wish list and we are scrapping to get 50 percent of what we ask for. But Al made it clear that Lauricella was a top-of-mind company that wanted a first-class facility, so he gave us everything we wanted. He listened to our input, and as long as we could provide the cost analysis of why we wanted to do something, he let us do it.

With marketing the site prior to opening as a priority, Ballard and Dixon immediately sought out local wine merchants, wholesalers, and distributors. They also shopped the only two safe deposit box businesses in town, discovering that those operations weren’ t conducive to most people’ s lifestyles in terms of access. A double-truck ad in the Yellow Pages, placed one year prior to opening, routed all calls to Universal’ s office in Atlanta. This culminated in a waiting list for units. Other marketing included a hand-culled list for mailers and fliers, a move-in truck that acts as a rolling billboard, gift bags and promotional items, a referral program, and off-site events with the New Orleans Food & Wine Expo, and the Louisiana Restaurant Association Annual Food Expo. The coup d’ état, however, was the Jefferson Parrish Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting that incorporated a treasure hunt tour that showed off the various sections of the facility and ended at an oasis created in the drive-through area complete with palm trees, elegant tables, a bar, and gourmet desserts.

The results of all of this hard work are obvious—already, the facility is currently one-and-a-half times ahead of projections in both lease up and income. The facility’ s limited conventional units are 100-percent occupied, while Phase One is at 60 percent and Phase Two is at 27 percent occupancy. Quite unexpectedly, after only six months, the wine cellar is more than 40 percent occupied. And Phase Three hasn’t even been built out yet—Gardes is pursuing several tenants, including local government agencies, who may lease large portions of the third floor at the facility.

The success at Elmwood Self Storage & Wine cellar comes as no surprise to PTI’ s Hudson, who says, We knew as soon as we started working on this project that is was going to be one of those facilities that raises the benchmark for everyone else. You know those facilities when they come up—and this is definitely one of them.

Poppy Behrens is the executive editor of the Mini-Storage Messenger.

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