Suwanee Storage Business Has Growth Plans

With the retail real estate market still struggling in Suwanee, a business is capitalizing on that for its own expansion needs.

Public Storage won rezoning approval Tuesday from the Suwanee City Council to convert some empty retail suites into storage cubicles.

Patrick Higgins, an architect for Public Storage (formerly McGinnis Ferry Self Storage), told council members Tuesday that about 11,000 square feet of retail space would be converted to storage areas. The sizes would vary, from 5'x5', to 10'x15'. The retail space has been sitting vacant since the development on McGinnis Ferry Road near Scales Road was completed in 2006.

"The market for (retail) tenants is still soft," Higgins said. He said self-storage "is doing very well."

Indeed, the latest Suwanee figures show that the city has a retail vacancy rate of about 20 percent, far above the metro Atlanta average.

-- What do you think of the retail situation in Suwanee? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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