Building Makeover: U-Haul Repurposes Kmart for Full-Service Store in Lima

U-Haul® recently completed its adaptive reuse of the former Kmart® building at 2200 Allentown Road, and is now serving customers at the new home of U-Haul Moving & Storage of Lima.

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U-Haul Moving & Storage of Lima, which houses 700 self-storage rooms at 2200 Allentown Road, opened on Nov. 18. (Photo: Business Wire)

The 13.4-acre property was acquired in 2023. U-Haul opened for business at the 104,685-square-foot facility on Nov. 18.

Implementation of the U-Haul Adaptive Reuse program led to the ecofriendly repurposing of a vacant big-box store into a state-of-the-art retail, moving and self-storage facility that offers 700 indoor climate-controlled storage units with high-tech security features at affordable price points.

U-Haul also owns the adjacent retail shopping plaza and intends to continue leasing plaza space to existing tenants, with U-Haul of Lima serving as the new anchor store for the revitalized complex.

Business hours are 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday; 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Download the U-Haul app or call the store at [phone] to reserve storage.

“Over the years, we have outgrown our store at 1608 Elida Road (where U-Haul has serviced customers since 1978) in all aspects,” said Logan Minnich, U-Haul Company of Northwestern Ohio president. “The new location features space with 20 times the capacity, so we can offer a greater selection of self-move and self-storage products. This building conversion will allow us to better serve the residents of Allen County.”

In addition to indoor storage, U-Haul of Lima offers a limited number of outdoor drive-up storage units; truck and trailer sharing services; a retail showroom with boxes and moving supplies; U-Box® portable moving containers; drive-in load/unload areas for storage customers; professional hitch installation and towing accessories; green programs like Take A Box, Leave A Box; and more.

Plans call for propane services and the use of recycled truck boxes for drive-up storage options in the future, as well as the creation of a U-Box warehouse on the property.

The 2200 Allentown Road store is one mile from the former full-service facility at 1608 Elida Road, now called U-Haul Storage of Lima. The Elida Road store is transitioning to a remote self-storage location run by the new parent store.

U-Haul Company’s Adaptive Reuse is an ecofriendly strategy for opening new stores that reduces emissions, eliminates blight and provides a faster route to the storage products and self-move services that U-Haul customers expect. By repurposing a 100,000-square-foot existing building rather than constructing a ground-up build, U-Haul prevents the use of approximately 782 tons of metal manufacturing and transportation (the amount of steel used to make 788 passenger cars); avoids 5,007 tons of new concrete pours (enough to create 101 miles of concrete blocks); keeps 8,939 tons of building and demolition debris out of landfills (avoiding 344 dump trucks traveling 7,220 miles); and stops 5,194,159 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere (the carbon emissions of 399 large SUVs or pickups for one year).

About U-HAUL

Founded in 1945, U-Haul is the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers with more than 23,000 rental locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. The U-Haul app makes it easy for customers to use U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 to access trucks anytime through the self-dispatch and -return options on their smartphones with our patented Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to 192,000 trucks, 138,700 trailers and 39,500 towing devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in North America with 1,024,000 rentable units and 88.5 million square feet of self-storage space at Company-owned and -managed facilities. U-Haul is the top retailer of propane in the U.S. and the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. Get the U-Haul app from the App Store or Google Play.

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Sydney Ellis Jeff Lockridge E-mail: [e-mail] Phone: [phone] Website: uhaul.com