These 1920s-Era Plants Once Made Planters Peanuts, Nabisco Cookies And Klondike Ice Cream Bars: Now They Have Been Redeveloped Via Adaptive Reuse Into U-Haul Storage Properties
Over 70% of U-Haul's storage properties are the product of adaptive reuse including several early 20th century factories that originally made iconic American treats
U-Haul is not only a leading moving truck, trailer and equipment rental companies in North America.
But it is also the 3rd largest self storage operator in North America with over 1 MM rentable units and 85 MM square feet of storage space.
And the main way that U-Haul developed the real estate to achieve this storage unit volume?
Adaptive reuse.
U-Haul has been repurposing buildings for over five decades and adaptive reuse is a fundamental policy of its in-house AMERCO real estate development unit.
Through its adaptive reuse program U-Haul has been able to quickly and efficiently develop properties, utilize infill sites close to its customers and emphasize sustainability and resource preservation.
Roughly 70% of U-Haul’s owned storage properties are the product of adaptive reuse.
Among U-Haul’s most unique conversions are several 1920s-era factories and plants that originally made iconic food items such as Planters peanuts, Nabisco cookies and Klondike ice cream bars.
Planters Peanut Factory-to-U-Haul in San Francisco
One of U-Haul’s earliest adaptive reuse projects was a conversion of a former Planters peanut factory in San Francisco.
In 1928 Planters built a peanut factory on a six acre Candlestick Point site near the San Francisco Bay. It then operated the factory for nearly 50 years.
But in 1977 Planters vacated the building and took down the iconic Mr. Peanut sign on the property’s roof that had been visible to travelers on nearby Highway 101.
Within months, though, U-Haul moved into the former Planters factory and initiated its plan to repurpose the four building campus.
Today U-Haul uses two of the former Planters buildings as the home for ~2,000 storage units while the other two buildings on the site are used for storage and maintenance of U-Haul’s rental fleet.
A Nabisco Bakery in Detroit-turned-U-Haul Property
Another unique adaptive re-use of an old factory site was U-Haul’s renovation and repurpose of a 250,000 square foot Nabisco bakery in the New Center area of Detroit.
The landmark 1920s era Nabisco building was vacant and abandoned when U-Haul acquired it in 2012.
But within a year U-Haul transformed the structure into a multi-story self-storage facility with 430 indoor climate-controlled units and covered drive-up loading and unloading docks.
A little over 10 years later, the Nabisco bakery-turned-U-Haul facility is a core part of Detroit's revitalized New Center area.
It is located alongside redeveloped apartments, the new Detroit Pistons Performance Center and a 20 acre site on which the Pistons, Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University are developing a new 1 MM square foot hospital, a medical research center and over 500 residences.
Dairy Plant and Bakery Conversions in Ohio
U-Haul continues to convert century old former bakeries and food plants into storage properties.
Just last year U-Haul announced plans to convert the former Ward Bakery in Youngstown, Ohio into a storage facility.
The bakery building was built in 1923 but closed in the 1960s and has been used over the years as a rental space for artists.
But now U-Haul plans to convert it into a climate controlled storage facility with up to 800 units.
Not surprisingly U-Haul has experience with other adaptive reuse of former food plants in the area.
In 1987 U-Haul acquired the former Art Deco-style Isaly Dairy Plant in Youngstown — where the famous Klondike Ice Cream Bar was created — into a moving and storage facility.
U-Haul maintained the unique features of the building such as its iconic central glass block tower that Isaly Dairy used to light with fluorescent tubes.
The Ward Bakery-to-U-Haul conversion is anticipated to be complete later this year.
And like the repurpose of the former Isaly Dairy Plant and its other adaptive reuse of other early 20th century factories, U-Haul expects to extensively renovate the property with the exterior “preserved to maintain as much of the original character as possible.”