Former Dubin Paper Company warehouse transformed into self-storage facility

Earlier this year we told you that the former Dubin Paper Company location at 1910 S. Columbus Blvd. could be transformed into a storage facility.

Storage units are now being rolled out in this 240,000 sq. ft. space. 300 units are opening this week, another 340 will be opened next month and in three years, the entire facility is expected to be built out.

This new storage facility is a project from Philly Self Storage owner, Gary Ott. When Ott purchased the building in February, it wasn’t int the best shape, having been vacant since Dubin Paper Company closed in 2012. With various city code violations, Ott has had his fair share of work to do on this building.

More on the facility from Philadelphia Business Journal: 

The size of the structure posed its own set of challenges as Ott started to design how the storage units would lay out.

But he found a clever way to overcome that issue – designing the storage space with a Philadelphia theme. The layout replicates the city’s grid plan with each hallway named after a city street.

“The building is so big that you can’t just tell a customer the number of their unit,” Ott said. “They still get a number, but this way we can tell them to go down Vine and take a right on Chestnut to find their unit.”