CubeSmart storage facility to double Brainerd complex

Four months after its opening, a new CubeSmart storage facility in Brainerd is already full and its owners are planning to double the size of the complex to add more than 280 more storage units.

Developer Bernard Frogel, president of Frogel Properties Inc., said Monday he will soon begin a $2 million expansion of the CubeSmart into what is now a Dollar General store in the former Hill’s Department Store shopping center near Brainerd and East Brainerd Roads. The Dollar General is slated to close at the end of August and is currently running a liquidation sale.

“Chattanooga has really taken to the CubeSmart brand,” said Frogel, a former Chattanoogan who now lives in Los Angeles. “I think being near the airport and on a road where more than 40,000 motorists a day pass by, this is still a good location. Unfortunately, the retail appeal went down when the airport tore down the properties near the end of the runway (across Brainerd Road).

The shopping center, which was built 35 years ago, includes a loading dock in the back. Built originally to house a Hill’s Department store and several smaller retail tenants, Frogel bought the shopping center in 1995 and used it for a Big Lots store for two decades. The retail center continues to also house a U.S. Money store.