Designing a Self-Storage Facility: Designing and developing a profitable self-storage facility requires much more than picking the perfect location and unit mix. The vendors you select and the team you work with can impact decision making and impact the bottom line. Before you build or start down the design planning road, it is imperative that you engage a company to do a market feasibility study. This is a critical first step since most investors and developers want to know if the property will be profitable before going into the design phase. Once your market feasibility study is complete, the Forge team will provide a complimentary site layout in this preliminary phase of the project. This site layout can then be turned into AutoCAD drawings so the architectural team can make any necessary updates and incorporate these into the architectural set of drawings. The Design Team So, who are the key players you will need in your design team? Below we outline the major vendors and how they will contribute to the development of the most aesthetically pleasing, profitable, and cost-effective self-storage facility. The first key player on the design team is the architect. They will take a concept and move it into detailed and actionable plans. The architect may also create elevations, and/or renderings that may be required for the initial design approval by the municipality.
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