Best Business Storage in Denver: How to Compare It Without Wasting a Week

There are five kinds of business storage in Denver and the monthly rent tells you almost nothing about which one you want. A $200 container and a $200 self storage unit are not up for the same job.

Here is what each one is and who it fits.

1. Indoor self storage unit

A 10 by 20 climate controlled unit, somewhere around $200 to $300 a month. Good for paper, samples, light inventory and anything that cannot freeze.

Bad for you if you own a truck. Most facilities will not let a commercial vehicle sit overnight, the drive aisles were built for a Tahoe and a dolly, and access hours are often gated. If your whole operation fits in a van and you stop by twice a month, this is fine and you can stop reading.

2. Storage container on rented yard space

A 20 or 40 foot container that stays put, with ground around it. $200 for a 20 and $330 for a 40 at our Colorado yards, and you add yard space next to it.

Good for tools, material, fittings, forms and anything that lives on a shelf and gets picked a few times a week. Good if you want one address for the box and the truck both. What fits inside each size is broken down in what fits in a 20 and a 40.

3. Open yard space with no building

Fenced gravel, a gate code, and that is it. 800 square feet is $530. 1,200 runs $730 to $750. 1,600 runs $930 to $950. The Van Gordon yard has a 2,200 square foot space at $1,050.

Right answer for trucks, trailers, equipment, pipe and pallets of block. Wrong answer for inventory that has to stay dry, which is why most tenants take ground plus a container. We wrote up the yard side of it on outdoor business storage in Denver.

4. Small warehouse bay with a yard attached

A roll up door, concrete floor, power, and ground outside it. Ours is 5,656 square feet with yard at $3,250 a month.

Good once you have employees who report to a shop instead of a job site, inventory that needs to be visible, or a fab table. The jump in rent is real and so is the jump in what you can do with your day.

5. Industrial lease

A real building from a real landlord. In the Denver metro that means triple net rates on a multi year term with a personal guarantee, plus your own insurance, your own snow removal, and whatever the building needs when something breaks at 2am.

Right for an established company with predictable revenue. Slow and expensive for everybody else. We ran the numbers in contractor storage yard versus industrial lease.

Three questions that decide it

Do you drive to it daily? If yes, cross off indoor self storage. The access rules will make you crazy.

Does anything have to stay dry? If yes, you need a container or a bay, not bare ground.

Do you need an address? If you bid commercial work, a street address beats your house on the paperwork. Mailboxes at the Arvada yard are $45.

Answer those and five options usually collapse to one.

What we have

Three yards in Colorado: Arvada, Wheat Ridge on Van Gordon, and Wheat Ridge on Tabor. Plus Houston and Laveen Village, Arizona. Everything is month to month.

Current openings are on the availability page, or call 720-266-0400 and tell us what you are parking.