South Beach’s luxe development craze has seen all-glass condos, ritzy hotels and flashy private clubs. Now, you can add self storage to that list.
Developers Ken Edelman and Alan Potamkin of car dealership fame just announced they’ve opened SoBe Wine & Self Storage, a three-story commercial building offering traditional storage and temperature controlled wine rooms.
Located at 633 Alton Road, the building houses 1,000 storage units ranging in size from five by five feet to 10 by 15 feet. Of those units, 140 are temperature controlled and are locked behind a “biometric lock.”
The developers said in a release that it took several years of convincing before city officials granted the zoning change needed to build the facility. Construction began in late 2015 and was financed with a $5.11 million loan from Florida Community Bank.
According to property records, the land Edelman and Potamkin built their self storage project on last traded for $1.3 million in 2008, though entities controlled by Potamkin were on both sides of the transaction. Most recently, ownership was transferred to a company called EP Sobe Storage that’s managed by Ken Edelman.
South Florida’s self storage industry has become a hotspot for real estate investment over the past year, as has speculative development. Miami City Self Storage, for instance, announced in 2015 that it launched a plan to build more than 1 million square feet of facilities throughout the region. — Sean Stewart-Muniz