10 REMB THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020Before Tiffany Shu, 23, left New York in late
March, she spent two days in her East
Village apartment frantically boxing up
clothing, accessories and kitchen items, and
preparing her mattress and a mirror for
storage.
With growing concern about the coro-
navirus pandemic, Ms. Shu’s parents, Patty
Shu, 56, and Jesse Shu, 62, of Anaheim Hills,
Calif., urged their daughter to come home.
“Everything was so uncertain; I kept feel-
ing this pressure,” said Ms. Shu, who is a
graphic designer for the beauty brand
Amorepacific. On top of that, Ms. Shu’s
lease expired on May 1 and her roommates
would not renew. “The best option for me
was to pack up my life, and find movers to
help me move everything into a storage
unit,” she said.
Since returning to New York on June 1,
Ms. Shu has been renting a furnished apart-
ment month-to-month on the Lower East
Side. To this day, her belongings remain at
Manhattan Mini Storage in Chelsea. The
move last March cost $280 (plus a $60 tip).
Her 5-by-6-by-8-foot unit costs $124 a
month. She got a third month free after sign-
ing up for two months of storage.
Across the country, as people were decid-
ing last spring whether they wanted to shel-
ter with family or friends in other towns and
states, they often were also having to grap-
ple with what to do with their apartments
and all of their possessions. With an end
date on the crisis completely uncertain, and
for some, with a lease renewal looming,
renting a storage unit has become a wel-
come option.
And, since there are about 50,000 storage
facilities in the United States, they have be-
come a solution to at least some problems.
With five facilities in New York and New
Jersey, Dumbo Moving + Storage serviced
2,650 new storage customers in May, up
35 percent compared with May 2019. “Some
customers were in a state of panic because
they needed to move out,” said Lior
Rachmany, owner and chief executive of
Dumbo Moving + Storage. “Many
customers moved out of state” and left their
belongings behind.
Because of the uptick in storage requests
this spring, the company’s buildings in
Brooklyn, Newark and East Rutherford,
N.J., reached capacity by late June. The
Dumbo building in Maspeth, N.Y., still has
availability, as does the 220,000-square-foot
facility in East Orange, N.J., which the com-
pany bought in response to high demand
caused by the pandemic.
Even without a pandemic, there is rou-
tinely enough turmoil in people’s lives that
the storage business attracts customers.
“Death, downsize, divorce and disaster”
keeps the storage industry afloat during
economic recessions, “because those
events are going to happen no matter what,”
said Rahul Gandhi, a founder and chief ex-
ecutive of MakeSpace, a storage service in
31 cities, including New York, Seattle, Nash-
ville and Dallas.
MakeSpace sends professional movers to
pick up, transport and store items in the
company’s warehouses. Before pickup,
MakeSpace can provide free packing kits or
clients can use their own boxes to store
property. Customers digitally track pick-
ups, access photo inventories of their items
and retrieve stored belongings on demand
without ever visiting the storage ware-
houses in person.
Previously, MakeSpace would pick up
items from inside the home or apartment,
but now they offer curbside pickup at the
residence to eliminate face-to-face interac-
tion. (In a few instances where curbside
pickup is not possible, MakeSpace will en-ter the home while all parties wear masks
and maintain six feet of social distancing.)
The reasons for obtaining storage space
may differ from person to person, but re-
cent health concerns are the same for con-
sumers, storage companies and their em-
ployees. Precautions directly influence the
way brands conduct business. Within its
storage warehouses, MakeSpace fre-
quently sanitizes shared surfaces to ensure
cleanliness.
Oscar Madriles, 25, a driver for
MakeSpace in Los Angeles, wears a mask
and gloves on the job and carries wipes and
hand sanitizer. His truck is also sanitized on
a weekly basis.
These days, it is not unusual for storage
arrangements to be made not just in a hurry
but over the phone.
Sonya Matejko, 29, paid $500 (and a $130
tip) when she remotely hired two Simply
Moving movers to pack up everything in
her Upper East Side apartment and deliver
her belongings to CubeSmart Self Storage
in North Bergen, N.J.
Ms. Matejko, who is a communications
consultant, left New York on March 13 to
quarantine with her parents in Tampa, Fla.
Her lease expired on April 30, and she was
unsure if she would be able to return to New
York before then.
“I just had to do everything remotely and
trust that everything was going to work out
OK by providing approvals via phone,” said
Ms. Matejko, who has paid about $75
month-to-month for a climate-controlled
5-by-12-by-8-foot unit since April.
Many storage companies provide units
on a month-to-month basis, with prices
ranging from $77 to $561 in New York City
and less in most areas, depending on detailslike size and geographic location, said Chris
Nebenzahl, a Denver-based research direc-
tor at Yardi Matrix, which tracks storage-
unit rates for U.S.-based facilities of at least
25,000 square feet.
Pricing also depends on services pro-
vided such as climate control, hours of ac-
cess, proximity to the building’s doors and
elevators, and the level of security pro-
vided. Mr. Nebenzahl said customers might
get a free month for longer leases (rather
than a lower price, because many operators
increased the rent every six months).
However, the national average price of
self-storage units was down by 4 percent in
June, compared with the same month last
year, Mr. Nebenzahl said. “Rates dropped
quickly after Covid hit, as many operators
wanted to fill up their vacant units,” he said.
“The economy was on shaky ground and
demand for storage was unknown, so to at-
tract tenants, owners wanted to offer the
best rates possible.”
That price drop isn’t necessarily a com-
fort for people who never thought they were
going to have to pay for a storage unit in the
first place — especially since it is an ex-
pense that most likely doesn’t have a spe-
cific end date.
For students attending Connecticut Col-
lege in New London, spring break began on
March 6, the same time on-campus housing
closed for the break. Gabriel Josephs, 20, a
sophomore psychology major, spent the
time off at his childhood home in Manhattan
rather than flying to Puerto Rico for a tennis
tournament, which was canceled because of
the pandemic.
Campus housing had been scheduled to
reopen after the break on March 23. In-
stead, an email from the school instructed
Mr. Josephs to collect his belongings from
his on-campus residence at Harkness
House by that date. While some colleges
provide free storage on campus, Mr. Jo-
sephs had to scramble for a place to keep his
rug, refrigerator, microwave and clothes.
Ever since, he has been renting a
5-by-5-by-8 CubeSmart Self Storage unit
near school in Gales Ferry, month-to-
month. “I was hoping a friend would split it
with me, because $51 felt pretty steep,” he
said.
For three months, Mr. Josephs was un-
sure if the campus would reopen in the fall.
He described his vulnerability to indefinite
storage fees as “a nerve-racking experi-
ence.” On June 22, he learned that Connecti-
cut College is scheduled to start in-person
classes on Sept. 1. “I’m still not completely
convinced the plan will follow through,” said
Mr. Josephs, who relocated to East Hamp-
ton, N.Y., in late June.
But despite his skepticism, Mr. Josephs
feels excited and hopeful. If all goes well,
he’ll move his belongings out of storage in
August.Packing Up Your Life? Storage Units Are Standing By
As the pandemic hit, renters
often had to make quick
decisions about all their stuff.
By HILARY SHEINBAUMTiffany Shu, above, returned to
New York City in June after
sheltering with her parents in
California. She has rented a
furnished apartment month-
to-month and is keeping her
belongings at Manhattan Mini
Storage, right. Gabriel Josephs,
above right, opted for a storage
unit when Connecticut College
told him to collect his things
during spring break instead
of returning to school.There is routinely
enough turmoil in life
that the storage business
attracts customers even
without Covid-19.ABOVE AND BELOW, KATHERINE MARKS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ERIC STRIFFLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESONLINE AUCTION
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(2300)FLORIDA(2373)SOHO 580 BROADWAY
Ofcs: 900sf.; 1,700sf & 3,200sf w/ wet
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Bronx 707Helping you live better.
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Helping you
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