U-Haul Converts Former Kmart Store to Self Storage

1500 Charleston Highway. Image via Google Street View

U-Haul, an Amerco Real Estate-owned company, has announced plans of converting a 100,984-square-foot former Kmart store in West Columbia, S.C., to a modern self storage facility. Adaptive reuse plans for the 1990-built asset call for 700 climate-controlled units.

Late last month, the company acquired the 8.9-acre property located at 1500 Charleston Highway, along an industrial and retail corridor serving the dense suburban West Columbia area.

Once completed, the facility will be one of 12 self storage properties within a 3-mile radius. With a penetration rate of 11.2 square feet of storage per capita, the area is slightly oversupplied compared to the national average of approximately 7 square feet per capita. Even so, the adaptive reuse project will be the newest addition to the area’s inventory since 2018.

U-Haul has ample experience with adaptive reuse projects, from big-box retail stores and mills to cinemas. In fact, 70 percent of the company’s portfolio comprises repurposed properties.

The company has been particularly active this year. Just this month, U-Haul announced the conversion of a former retail building in Modesto, Calif., and an old movie theatre in Rome, Ga. The completed facilities will add a combined 500 climate-controlled units to U-Haul’s portfolio.