Facility prepped for growing market segment
A local facility that stores recreational vehicles for their owners is in the process of adding space and protection for the vehicles.
Shreve City Self Storage is expanding its berths for RVs. As more people get into the RV hobby for pleasure or to save on trip expense, the industry has rebounded from the malaise of the U.S. recession. Over the past several years, the number of people who own RVs has shown healthy and substantial growth, and insiders predict continued advance in the market. The business will hold a grand opening event Dec. 30 at 1333 Shreveport Barksdale Highway.
Dr. Richard Curtin is an RV industry analyst and is director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan. He conducted a survey that found the number of RV-owning households has grown to a new peak of 8.9 million households. That figure is up about a million households since 2005. According to the report, 8.5 percent of U.S. households now own RVs, up from 8.0 percent in 2005.
According to IBISWorld, a publisher of industry research, RVs are an $18 billion annual industry. “The recreational vehicle dealers industry has managed its way out of a rough recessionary period,” according to the report, “and has been restoring its previously lost revenue through considerable growth since 2012.”
In 2014, there has been an almost 12 percent growth in sales. IBIS credits the increases to improved access to credit and greater consumer confidence. With baby boomers swelling the over-50 population, predictions are good for the continued growth of the segment.
A growing demand is just what Shreve City Self Storage anticipated as it launched its expansion. Stacey Gross is the resident manager of the facility located near the intersection of Shreveport-Barksdale and the Fant Parkway. She said her boss, Rand Falbaum, saw a need for more and better protected RV storage and decided to expand the Shreve City location. That site has been in operation for 18 years and has already been expanded on a few years back, Gross said. The new construction will swell the current 590 units of storage to 737 units.
All of that growth isn’t for RVs; there will also be space for household items, boats and other vehicles. But the new spots dedicated to RVs will have some special extras for the travel-trailer crowd.
“The main amenity we’re offering with this new expansion is more security for RVs,” Gross said. “It’s going to be selfenclosed. It’s going to be fenced within a fence. We have RV storage now, but this is going to be higher security level. We have some pretty expensive RVs on our lot now. [Mr. Falbaum] wanted to offer a little more peace of mind to people who are spending more money on those kinds of expensive vehicles these days.”
For RV owners looking for security and protection, Gross said the new construction is just what they are looking for. “We’re going to have 48 new RV spots. We’re going to have four covered RV buildings. [There will be] three regular storage buildings, but we’re going to have the additional RV and boat storage. We’re going to have 20 pull through [spaces], you know where the RVs pull right through; they don’t have to back in. We have 14 of those spaces now; we’re going to have another 20 added to that.” In addition to the expanded facility, Gross said customers will have 50-amp plug-ins available instead of the 20-amp currently available.
Falbaum owns and operates five storage centers in the area: StowAway Self Storage, Crossroads Self Storage, Line Avenue Self Storage, University Self Storage and the location at Shreve City. Information about the sites and rates can be found at www.sbselfstorage. net.
“We saw a need. We stay pretty full at this location. With all the activity with the air force base, we just are up to capacity pretty much all the time. It was something [Mr. Falbaum] had wanted to do for a while, and the opportunity just presented itself,” said Gross.
