Self-storage company details plan for former Butler Middle School building
Dozens of Butler residents gathered at a city council meeting on Thursday night, March 27, to see what the future may hold for its former middle school, which has stood dormant for nearly three years.
Steve Mitnick, the owner of self-storage company STORExpress, presented his plans for the future of the middle school building: a combination of self-storage units and salon suites.
Mitnick initially purchased the property for $475,000 earlier this month in a bidding war with two other potential buyers.
During his presentation, Mitnick touted his company’s success in transforming old municipal spaces such as schools, movie theaters, warehouses and office buildings into new developments.
“There was an envelope manufacturing plant that we acquired in Mount Pleasant,” Mitnick said. “We turned it into not only a self-storage operation, but also an indoor RV storage facility. So you can get an idea of the types of things that we’re used to dealing with.”
In addition to his main business of STORExpress — which has 15 locations in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio — Mitnick also operates 412 Salon Studios, located in a former Loews Cineplex movie theater in North Versailles in Allegheny County.
Mitnick rents out the space to those looking to run salon businesses. He says that tenants are provided all the tools they need to operate their business, including sinks, mirrors and cabinets.
“What it is, is basically a place for someone who does hair, nails, tattoos, things of that nature, to have their own studios,” Mitnick said. “It basically facilitates entrepreneurship within the artists so they can actually run their own business.”
The self-storage business would consist of 300 units initially, and then Mitnick says he would “let the market demand” whether more were necessary. Every single door would be secured by a keypad, with each keypad given its own unique code, and the facility would be monitored by a full set of security cameras hooked to DVRs.
“Self-storage doesn’t seem like a sexy business,” Mitnick said. “But what it really does is, it helps people through changes within their lives. It helps businesses expand. It gives them space to be able to grow without having to make major capital investments. So it really does help.”
There is one slight hurdle to Mitnick’s ambitions: the middle school building is in the R-3, high density residential, zoning district of Butler. While salon suites are a permitted use in that district, self-storage is not.
Mitnick’s legal counsel, Emily Mueller, asked city council to consider amending the city’s zoning table to add self-storage as a conditional use in the R-3 zoning district.
“You have several commercial uses that are permitted in R-3. All of them are permitted by conditional use,” Mueller said. “What we're proposing would be consistent with the way you already treat your commercial uses in R-3.”
While no action was taken during Thursday’s meeting, Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said that Mitnick would need to request the city’s zoning board look into the matter.
