The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for CubeNow Self-Storage on Thursday, Aug. 18. Located at the former site of Ace Hardware, 1701 E. Center St., Warsaw, the facility offers storage spaces in a variety of sizes in an indoor, climate-controlled setting. InkFreeNews photos by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Dean Avey believes that there’s a huge need for extra storage space in Warsaw.

It’s why the company he works with, the Swyft Group, developed CubeNow Self-Storage. On Thursday, Aug. 18, the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for CubeNow, located at the former site of Ace Hardware, 1701 E. Center St., Warsaw.

Avey said he believes the need for storage space is connected to the need for housing.

“Many people don’t realize that self-storage is really tied pretty closely with housing,” he said. “You look at how hard it is to find a home, how expensive it is to build a home. So, I think the price per square foot right now is about $150 when you build a house. So that means if somebody wants a 10-by-10 room to store a kayak or bikes, they’re spending about $15,000 just to build that space.”

“So it is super expensive just to have room to store things,” he continued. “And that’s hard. If people come here, and they’re just a family or one person and they rent an apartment, they need a place to put things. And so we’ve seen a huge need for that. ”

“There’s some self-storage on the outside of the city, but they’re all outdoor storage,” Avey added. “There’s very few self-storage (facilities), and even fewer still in a very convenient location like downtown.”

Construction on CubeNow was finished “about two months ago,” and the business had a testing period with some users, followed by a soft opening, said Avey.

There are at least 25 units of the more than 200 available that have been claimed, he said. People can rent one of the remaining spaces by visiting www.cubenow.com. They may also call 574-893-6391 if they have questions.

Spaces range from 5-by-5 feet to 10-by-10 feet, and rent works on a month-by-month basis. As it’s self storage, people may stop by from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week to the indoor, climate-controlled facility to move stuff in or out. They use their phones to both get into CubeNow and access their own storage units.

In terms of security, Avey said the facility has about 25 security cameras.

“As soon as you walk in, all the lights go on. You can’t get in the front door unless you’re a paying customer for here,” he said.

“We hope anybody walks in and they’re like, ‘Hey, this feels more like a convenient store … or a nice place than just getting to self-storage. I think when they see that and see how convenient it is, it’ll be a really handy tool for our community,” said Avey of what he hoped customers take away from using CubeNow.

A look down one of the rows of storage spaces inside CubeNow.