STORAGE WARS: SELF-STORAGE SITES ARE MOVING DOWNTOWN TO BE CLOSER TO SPACE-STARVED MILLENNIALS--AND CITY LEADERS AREN'T TOO THRILLED ABOUT IT.

• Author: Campbell, Spencer
• Position: FIRST TAKE

Self-storage facilities were once built on unsightly pieces of property on the edge of town where land was cheap and crime plentiful. The buildings were low-slung, one-story structures with barbed-wire fencing and roll-up doors for protection. "In the old days, if you needed storage, you would go and find it in the seedy area of town," says Stephen Overcash, principal of Charlotte-based Overcash Demmitt Architects PLLC. "And they were pretty ugly."

Maybe, but they didn't need to be pretty. They were mostly used by craftsmen as cheap warehouses or families looking for a place to stash seldom-used goods. "We would see [tenants] when they moved in and when they moved out," says Dave Benson, president of Morningstar Properties LLC, a Matthews-based self-storage company founded by his father, Stephen, in 1981. "There was no traffic in between."

But in recent years, self-storage units have become destinations unto themselves. Baby boomers have taken to downsizing from 4,000-square-foot McMansions to smaller houses and condos that are easier to maintain but have less room for grandma's china. Millennials are flooding urban centers where the rent is high but space is short. They can't afford apartments large enough to stash bikes, backpacks and other millennial paraphernalia.

To meet growing demand, North Carolina storage providers have embarked on a building binge. Raleigh has at least 60 self-storage facilities, with applications for 23 new or expanded sites, according to the city. "It's the perfect storm," Overcash says. "And who knows how long it will last?"

One wrinkle: Previously out-of-the-way storage facilities have moved into prime locations closer to downtown. Most of the proposed Raleigh sites are in areas the city designates as urban centers. Overcash, whose firm designs self storage for Morningstar and a half dozen other storage companies, refers to them as "urban closets"--the idea being that millennial will visit the facilities on a weekly basis to retrieve gear.

To be welcomed along Main Street, storage companies have gussied up their designs. Morningstar, which has 55 properties from Virginia to Texas, opened a five-story facility in Charlotte's South End that boasts a modern look, complete with steel and plenty of glass, as well as retail on the ground floor. "To be close to millennials, storage facilities need to match the aesthetic of downtowns," Overcash says. "To be a good neighbor." While Morningstar's South End project...