Mabey’s Moving and Storage has hopes to expand its location on Route 9 in Latham by roughly 400 storage units in three new buildings.
At a Colonie Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, Frank Palumbo of C.T. Male Associates, representing Mabey’s, submitted plans to build three additional storage units adjacent to the existing Mabey’s units at 916 New Loudon Road. Demolition of the former Kiskis Tire Company, Midas Muffler and Cottman Transmission has already begun at the adjacent property. Those businesses are no longer open.
The current Mabey’s operation consists of seven buildings containing 430 self-storage units. The expansion would add three, two-story self-storage buildings totaling 54,240 square feet worth of space with about 400 more storage units. While the older buildings are normal storage garages that customers directly pull up to, the new buildings would be indoors and the customers would enter through a single door with storage units off the hallways. The new storage units would be climate controlled, with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer for more valuable items.
The new buildings would be at the corner of Sparrowbush Road and New Loudon Road. Since the parcel is right off the highway, board members were pleased to see new buildings and a fresh look would be for the location. However, several board members said they are hoping engineers will present more improvements on the visual aspects to the storage units, saying the buildings looked too “boxy.”
Although they are just storage units, board members like Brian Austin said it would be nice to see something a little more visually friendly than the flat-roofed proposed buildings because it’s such an important and busy corner.
“You want something appealing because it’s on Route 9. You want something attractive,” Director of Planning and Economic Development Joe LaCivita said.
LaCivita said he gave Palumbo some suggestions, such as to look at the architecture of neighboring buildings, like the roof structure at the Fresh Market Plaza a little further down the road.
“It’s an important entrance to the town,” Palumbo said. “The argument we were making is that this is an ideal use for the site … it’s a very low traffic generator. I’m very confident that we’re going to be able to reach an agreement on the building style.”
Palumbo said they hope to begin the project as soon as possible after receiving final site approval.
A public hearing will be held at the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, March 26, for a special use permit regarding the land use.