This facility is a complementary addition to the wide array of uses already available or being added to the Hamilton Place campus.
Work has started on a planned 95,000-square-foot building that will hold self-storage units adjacent to Hamilton Place mall as the shopping center's redevelopment moves ahead.
The building's site, where Golfsmith formerly operated near Bassett Home Furnishings, will hold 645 climate-controlled units with an average size of 107 square feet, according to mall operator CBL Properties.
"Today marks another milestone as we commence construction on a new state-of-the-art self-storage facility," said CBL President Michael Lebovitz about the new project called Box Storage.
Managed by Absolute Storage Management Inc., the units are to open next March. Box Storage is developed as part of a joint-venture by CBL with Hickory Capital Group, according to CBL. The company declined to reveal the project cost.
Lebovitz said the Hamilton Place campus has a lot of construction activity ongoing as it progresses on the redevelopment of the former Sears store at the mall.
A Dave & Buster's restaurant and entertainment complex and a Dick's Sporting Goods are slated to open next spring, he said.
Also, office space is expected to be included in the Sears site, and an Aloft Hotel is planned for a nearby parking lot. A Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened in an another outparcel late last year.
Lebovitz said that CBL's priority is to diversify the mix of uses at its properties as they transition to suburban town centers and create value from previously under-utilized space.
"This facility is a complementary addition to the wide array of uses already available or being added to the Hamilton Place campus," he said.
Earlier this year, the self-storage tract won rezoning from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission from retail to C-2 commercial.
CBL Chief Executive Officer Stephen Lebovitz has said the product of the Chattanooga-based company, which holds 67 malls nationwide, "has had to be transformed to be competitive and stay relevant and successful."
When malls were built, there was a fairly standard pattern of putting in anchor stores and building a ring road with parking lots, the CEO said.
"Now, we're blowing that model up," he said. "That doesn't mean there's no room for specialty and department stores but it also includes beverage, entertainment, fitness and things like that."
CBL already has put self-storage structures near malls in St. Louis and Cincinnati.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.