Storage centers fear base will lock up Marine trade.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler - Marine Corps Community Services - Onsite storage center for Camp Lejeune

War in Iraq didn't help most Jacksonville businesses. Retail sales were off nearly 8% in March compared with a year earlier, mainly due to deployment of 14,000 Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune. But one sector that did thrive -- for the same reason -- was temporary storage.

Karen Huffman manages A-Storage Inn, which leases about 420 units and operated at capacity, as did most of the 40 or so storage businesses in town. The only other time business was so good, she says, was during the 1991 Gulf War. But it might have been too good. Marine Corps Community Services, a civilian agency that recruits and licenses businesses to operate on bases, is seeking bids for Lejeune's first onsite storage center.

The base business would be more convenient for the 30,000 Marines and dependents who live there. Since it would be on federal land and wouldn't pay county or city property taxes, it could undercut prices. Huffman, who has been running A-Storage since she retired as a Marine chief warrant officer in 2000, says she's been trying for months to find out why MCCS wants to put a storage business there.

The answer, MCCS marketing director Wynn Hildreth says, is simple. "We think there is a market. There's certainly not any kind of customer-service issue but a demand issue." Among businesses it has recruited to Lejeune are Burger King, Jiffy Lube and barbershops. The base...