Dealpoint Merrill Gets Approval to Convert Grocery Store to Self-Storage in Fort Wayne, IN

Update 8/10/17 – The Fort Wayne, Ind., City Council this week approved Dealpoint Merrill’s zoning request to convert the former Scott’s Food Store to self-storage. The facility will include all interior units, according to the source.

“This building has been empty for quite a while,” said council member Paul Ensley, who represents the district. “Perhaps everybody's first choice would not have been self-storage. It would have been to get another grocery store or something like that in there; but I think if that was going to happen, it would have happened by now.”

A written commitment submitted with the rezoning application prohibits several development types, including auto-body shops, gas stations and outdoor automobile sales, according to Michelle Wood, senior planner for Allen County Department of Planning Services.

City council president Tom Didier and council member Jason Arp were absent from the vote.

---

8/9/13 – Another empty grocery store in Fort Wayne, Ind., may soon become a self-storage facility. Dealpoint Merrill, a subsidiary of investment firm Merrill Lynch Group of Cos., hopes to convert the former Scott’s Food Store in the Stellhorn Village shopping center into a self-storage facility. The Fort Wayne Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeal is expected to consider the proposal as early as September.

The project comes on the heels of another grocery-store conversion opening this month in the city. Self-storage operator Fort Wayne Storage is building a 46,000-square-foot, single-story building and property on Spy Run and State Boulevard. The two-story facility, which will be called Downtown Self Storage, will contain 440 storage units, half of which will be climate-controlled.

Dealpoint Merrill has completed two similar conversions of empty retail buildings and has plans for several more, according to Mike Gaertner, the designer of the Fort Wayne self-storage project.

The proposed development at 4522 Maplecrest Road will have a yet undetermined number of climate-controlled self-storage units. The facility could also offer commercial space for up to 10 businesses.

The grocery stores, both of which are owned by Kroger, closed in 2010 as part of the company’s $100 million restructuring of its Fort Wayne operations.