Photo: Contributed
The U-Haul centre in the old Western Star Trucks manufacturing plant is now up and running, but the company still has “extensive renovations” planned for the building.
The moving-industry giant took over the 23,500-square-metre building, which sits at 2076 Enterprise Way, April 3, after the old manufacturing plant had sat empty for close to 15 years.
The building is now U-Haul Moving and Storage at Orchard Park, and offers the usual suite of U-Haul products and services.
Moving forward, U-Haul says it plans to undertake significant renovations at the centre, creating a full 1,000 indoor, self-storage units there.
“In 1967, White Motor Company started the Western Star division with this Kelowna plant,” said Horace Martin, the president of U-Haul Company of British Columbia. “It is currently the second largest building in Kelowna and we are happy to make use of it.”
Martin says that, once the facility is complete and running at full capacity, it will employ a staff of 20 people. He promises that U-Haul will “look to hire locally” to fill those positions.
Martin also says U-Haul had sustainability in mind when it bought the plant.
By reusing the old building instead of building a new one, the company claims it kept 659 tons of metal from being used; avoided 10,789 tons of new concrete pours; kept 11,640 tons of construction and demolition debris out of landfills; and stopped 1,576,283 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere.
U-Haul has not said when the new centre will be fully up and running, or when the renovation will be finished.
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