Two storage facilities, Abraham Self-Storage and Affordable Self-Storage, are being constructed or expanded just a few miles apart in Spokane Valley.

Affordable Self Storage is adding seven RV storage buildings plus an office, says contractor Jon Stevens, president of Stevens Construction LLC. The addition, valued at $4.2 million, will add 81,800 square feet of RV storage space to the existing storage facility, he says.

Affordable Self-Storage owner Tom Andersen says he decided to add the RV-sized units at the Valley facility to mirror another Affordable Self-Storage operation he owns east of Spokane Valley, near the northeast corner of Wellesley Avenue and Harvard Road.

The addition is under construction, and the first units, which will be 15 feet by 45 feet, likely will be ready by June 1, Andersen says. The remaining units are expected to be completed by Sept. 1.

“Each unit has LED lighting inside the unit and electrical power with 30-amp hookups for RVs,” he says.

The RV storage unit doors will be 14 feet tall and between 13 and 14 feet wide, he says, so that any size RV can fit into a unit.

Regarding the other self-storage project, William “Larry” Abraham says he and his wife, Patricia, broke ground last month on a storage facility 1625 N. Flora that will include space for boat and RV storage.

The facility will cost about $1.1 million, he says, and the 2.5-acre facility will include 40 uncovered spaces for boats and RVs in addition to 18,000 square feet of storage in seven buildings.

Abraham says his company, Abraham Construction, of Spokane Valley, will construct the facility. The project is expected to be completed by September, although Abraham says the facility likely will open by early August.

Officially, the facility is named Abraham Self-Storage. It’s unofficially being called The Storage House, Abraham says, but he hopes to find a catchier name for the facility before it opens. 

The facility originally was slated to be named S’more Space Self-Storage, but the Abrahams found out that the name has been trademarked and is already in use. 

“We found out after the fact that we were beaten to the punch by about two years by a company in Pennsylvania,” Abraham says. “We actually made contact with them and tried to negotiate a deal for the use of the name, because we’re so far away from one another.”

The company declined to negotiate, he says.

The couple has owned the property for about a decade, he says, and recently decided to develop the land. They initially debated whether to create housing or storage.

“We decided the better long-term investment was to service the neighborhood with additional storage because the area has become such a high rental area,” Abraham says. “You just don’t have any extra space to store anything. We’ve had an influx of apartments there, probably 600 to 1,000 apartments built within about two miles of our piece of property.”