RV storage process begins again in T.O
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com
Although their proposal was rejected last year, Hollywood Storage Center is still interested in building a recreational vehicle storage facility for Thousand Oaks, despite what a company representative said are unrealistic expectations by the city.

Robert Schwartz, an architectural consultant for Hollywood Storage, said that construction of the parking facility will be expensive because the 6½-acre cityowned site is hilly and would require a tremendous amount of expensive grading.

The city is also seeking to restrict rents, limit parking to Thousand Oaks residents only, and offer the developer a short-term lease of about 10 years rather than the industry standard of 45 years.

“These terms mean that the developer can never recover his initial investment,” said Schwartz, estimating the project cost to be about $3.58 million. “The city is seeking the impossible.” The company owns a general storage facility in Newbury Park.

The firm submitted a proposal to the city last May, one of three companies to do so. Several months later the city chose Power Partners LLC. In March, Power Partners withdrew its proposal due to underestimating construction costs as well as the challenges of the site itself, located on Lawrence Drive in the Rancho Conejo industrial area.

Schwartz believes that Power Partners, which owns an RV storage facility less than one mile away from the site, would have been in competition with itself had it gone through with the deal.

“The city got diddled. One year after the city issued requests for proposals, nothing has happened.

Not a single parking space has been created after all of this wheel spinning, and the city has lost rent money,” Schwartz said.

City staff will now hold new meetings with interested companies to choose another bid, according to Facilities Manager Tom Hare. The first meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Thurs., June 16 at city hall.

Letters are being sent to more than 50 interested parties, added Hare, to inform them of the meeting. In this round of meetings, Conejo Valley Unified School District will be included. The district owns land adjacent to the site that could be used to enlarge the project.

Schwartz said that if Hollywood Storage could operate the facility for 45 years, the city would realize a total of $5.46 million in revenues. Monthly rents vary according to the size of the vehicle and the size of the storage space.

Smaller spaces such as 10 feet by 20 feet uncovered run about $118 a month, and the same space covered costs about $147. Larger spaces such as 12 feet by 45 feet uncovered run about $257 a month, and the covered equivalent is about $360.

Schwartz offered another suggestion for the site. He said that the city might consider building the storage facility using public funds and then operating it on a concessionaire basis, similar to the way the Los Robles golf course is run. The city would pay an annual fee to the operator but could then set its own charges for renters, offering discounts to the elderly, for instance.

Hare says the city’s goals in a parking facility have not changed from a year ago. Amenities such as power hookups for the site, a dump station, washing bay, garbage disposal and free parking for 10 police vehicles are included in the goals.

But Hare admitted that in order to make the project economically feasible for a developer, the plans may need to be “tweaked.” He is hoping to receive more than three proposals in the spirit of healthy competition.

“We’re looking forward to meeting with people and trying to come up with a way to make this successful,” Hare said.