Saturday, December 12, 2015

UPDATE: Varsity Jr. Parcel Becoming "Lindbergh Self Storage"



Construction to begin soon at site of former Varsity Jr. 

More than five years since its closure, and over a year since I first reported its fate, the former Varsity Jr. will in fact become a new self storage facility.  While rumors of the deal falling apart had spread over the past few months, I confirmed there are active permits for the construction of the self storage facility.  

The new facility, to be known as "Lindbergh Self Storage," will cost $3.5 million to construct, according to building permits filed this week with the City of Atlanta.  The nearly 100,000 square foot facility will reportedly have 750 climate-controlled storage units.  The four story building, which sits on roughly 1.4 acres, will reportedly be completed in about eight months according to someone with knowledge of the construction timeline.  

Less than a half mile from the new storage facility, Extra Space Storage already operates in a converted Service Merchandise store and parking lot.  

Additionally, there is also another storage facility, Public Storage, located about a mile away, near the intersection of LaVista and Briarcliff Roads.  

What are your thoughts on this new development?  Are you in favor of this redevelopment?  What else would you like to see happen in the area?

Please share your thoughts below.  

18 comments:

AJ said...

I literally yawned at this news!

Anonymous said...

Such an opportunity missed. That location could have been a station for expanded ATL Streetcar.

Anonymous said...

This is so bad of a place for a self-storage lot that it's got me seriously wondering if self-storage companies are just a big money laundering scheme.

Anonymous said...

So pathetic. Get rid of a piece of Atlanta history in a dispute over curb cuts and put in a piece of crap to replace it. This has to be the worst most incompetent leadership the city has ever seen.

Ham said...

I have a lot of good memories of the old Varsity jr and hated to see it go. However, regardless of what you felt about that place and its closure this is a loss for the community. This is a prime lot that could have been better used for retail, dining or some more positive use. Self storage places belong in the nooks and crannies of our community and not right on the corner of Cheshire Bridge/Lindberg/Lavista.

Anonymous said...

The Gordy family is punishing the neighborhood for not supporting their suburban style new restaurant by now building a self storage. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I live in this area and I hate to see this business go in. There is already enough businesses like this close by. I was hoping that some of the surrounding businesses would have been purchased and a whole new center go up including a Starbucks or some other type coffee shop. There was a rumor to this plan a while back.

Ham said...

"The Gordy family is punishing the neighborhood for not supporting their suburban style new restaurant"

So, just curious exactly what a suburban style restaurant is?

Anonymous said...

quite a shame, and the worst part is that these storage unit rental places never seem to go out of business, thus this corner of a very prominent intersection is doomed for all eternity.

Does anyone know of a single one of these storage rental places that was torn down and replaced with something else?

~mindspringyahoo

ImAndy said...

Don't buy in this neighborhood and then get upset that it isn't changing. This whole stretch is nothing more than city maintenance garages, strip clubs, sex stores, bong stores and seedy hotels with neon lights. It's not to say it will never change but slow your roll and step into reality. You could have gone a half mile in any direction and paid triple in rent/mortgage than you have now but you chose not to.

Go enjoy the remodeled McDonalds and have a seat. And for the love of God quit reelecting Alex Wan

Anonymous said...

The problem is that this neighborhood WAS BETTER but it has gotten worse. Anyone remember that gourmet grocery store on Cheshire Bridge south of Lindbergh that now sits vacant? (their name escapes me). They were here for generations and close about 6 years ago but I spoke with them days before they closed and they told me that traffic was a major issue and it was not getting addressed at the time. That appears to be the same reason the Varsity closed. City leaders don't give a damn about traffic and addressing it. The back-ups on Lindbergh at Cheshire Bridge get worse and worse. And no one at the city gives a damn. No wonder the Varsity closed. You could barely get in and out of there. This is what happens when you have incompetent city leadership.

ImAndy said...

Your traffic is only going to get worse. They're building even more apartments on the corner of Faulkner and Cheshire. Perfect for everyone that wants to live between two gay bars and the pink pony. Repeat....quit re-electing Alex Wan!!!

ImAndy said...

Sorry meant to say the Doll House not the pink pony. The DUI school is across the street....

Anonymous said...

This is unfortunate. If people would stop accumulating so much crap, these places would not exist. People pay more to store their cheap junk than it would cost to replace it.

Jim ATL said...

This is unfortunate. I don't really understand the whole additional storage thing but obviously lots of people want it/need it so that's why they build more on expensive intown property. The above commenter is right - they will be here forever.

But I love Cheshire Bridge and it's seedy/crappy nature. So much of Atlanta is becoming boring and same-y. It's nice to have this little bit of vice. I have figured out how to explain what Southern Nights is all about to my young daughters.

StojBoj said...

Storage facilities are ways to make properties cash flow while you (the owner) wait for property prices to rise before sale.

Anonymous said...

Is this all self storage or will there be retail? I thought I saw a sign that this development included space for retail. Thanks for the reporting!

396 said...

That's a good point and I'd never thought about it before. I have never, ever seen a self-storage place go out of business. People toss stuff in there and leave it for years or even decades because, with it out of the house, it's easy to forget about. They just keep paying that $100 every month without really thinking about it and it quickly runs into thousands of dollars. A city like Atlanta will always have lots of people who use them for a few months or a couple of years while they're between apartments or moving in or out of town temporarily for work. I've done that myself.

Many homeless people do have some very small income either from unemployment, SSI/Disability, occasional day labor or off-the-books, low-paid work. Some of them keep their few belongings in a small storage unit and also occasionally sleep there when it's really cold.

Some people dump a lot of stuff in them after their parents die and they don't have the time or energy to carefully go through all the decades of accumulated stuff in Mom and Dad's house and make decisions about what to keep and what to throw away. They put it in storage, intending to go through it "later" but five or 10 or 13 years later it's all still there.

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