Kittredge Building to Become Self-Storage Facility

A building known in recent years as the Kittredge Building at 55 Emery Street in Springfield was sold in 2022 and is being converted in an indoor self-storage facility.The building now spans about two city blocks and sits on 1.2 acres of land, some of it now under I-91. It was built in 1886 as the National Needle factory, which manufactured needles for hand and machine sewing. Kittredge Restaurant Supplies moved there in the 1920s and was the go-to place for restauranteurs throughout the Pioneer Valley. This business moved to Agawam in 2008. The building sat mostly vacant since then, though an EMS company was located there for a short stint.In 2020, the building became a stand-alone historic district, which prevents it from being demolished or substantially altered on the exterior.But now it is going to stay the same outside, but be transformed into an indoor self-storage facility, owned by QOZ Self-Storage II LLC. Are those owners initials, you may ask? Nope, QOZ is short for Qualified Opportunity Zones, economically distressed areas that qualify for tax breaks for investors.Investment in QOZ for self-storage is a relatively new, and quite lucrative, investment opportunity. Storable.com has a section on its industry-focused site that lays out how sought-after QOZ sites are that can be turned into storage. There are three tax benefits to locating in a QOZ, and that, combined with the low price $2.15 million for 90,000 SF (a mere 41 cents per square foot - even with the sale price being $350,000 over asking price) makes it quite a good bargain for the buyers.This one building gives a telling story of the history of the US economy over the past 150 years. From manufacturing a product that was distributed nationally and internationally (1886-c.1925) to selling goods (manufactured in the US and abroad) to service businesses (c.1925-2008) to being a place without a clear use (2008-2023) to a massive space to store people's excess consumer goods.