The long-vacant old Rona building at 943 Barrydowne Road will soon house a U-Haul storage facility with 650 indoor climate-controlled self-storage lockers.
The company took occupancy of the 19.5-acre property and the 36,804-square-foot building on July 13, which has been vacant since 2018.
“Empty buildings are blight on our communities and hurt property values,” U-Haul Central Ontario president Wayne Curtis said in a media release.
“It takes a special type of business to use a large space. We are a perfect fit because U-Haul can convert and utilize the entire space for a product that is in high demand.
“Bringing the U-Haul Adaptive Reuse program to Sudbury is important because we can breathe
life into an existing building without the environmental impact of building a new facility.
In a media release, U-Haul notes, “The adaptive reuse of existing buildings reduces the amount of energy and resources required for new-building materials and helps cities reduce their unwanted inventory of unused buildings.”
Curtis intends to hire at least 12 people to staff the new store, with positions to be posted online at jobs.uhaul.com.
