Self-storage units replace Quaker<br> at old Grant’s store in Somerset

A nearly 53,000-square-foot former department store in Somerset is being turned into 427 secure, temperature-controlled self-storage units, with 3,000 square feet reserved for a design center and display area for modular home builder East Coast Homes LLC.
Attorney and real estate developer David Megna, manager of Somerset Self Storage LLC and owner of East Coast Homes, said the facility is scheduled to open Aug. 1. It will be “state of the art” and aesthetically pleasing, he said. “Everybody is excited about it,” he said.
The now-vacant building, at 3129 County St., previously was home to Grant’s department store, a banquet facility, a high-end automobile dealer and, most recently, the Quaker Fabric Corp., which sold it last July as part of a plan to reduce costs by consolidating its facilities.
“The building has had a variety of uses,” Megna said. “It has had difficulty making it in the past, but this should work really well. It has a ton of units, and it’s a nice, nice facility.”
The project is being financed by The Washington Trust Co.’s commercial real estate group in partnership with Nickerson Financial Group, a mortgage brokerage in Cataumet, Mass., which together are providing $2.6 million.
In a news release, Washington Trust Chairman and CEO John C. Warren said the project “will bring new growth and revitalization to an otherwise vacant property in Somerset, and The Washington Trust Co. is excited to be a part of its development.”
Megna said he considers this project important because most self-storage units are outdoors and experience weather-related problems such as condensation in the summer.
“They don’t have a lot of humidity control, but now people who place their possessions in storage won’t have to worry about things like mold or rain,” he said.
There are no climate-controlled storage unit facilities in Somerset, Dighton or Rehoboth, he said, though many are being built in Providence and Boston. “People are taking older buildings with HVAC systems and renovating them,” he said.
The building will also include security features such as surveillance cameras, Megna said. And it will include a space for East Coast Homes, which has been in business for more than 25 years.
“It’s exciting,” Megna said. “People will be able to sit down and design their homes.”