The old Connecticut Limousine site is finally being redeveloped, bringing a six-story self-storage facility to one of the last dilapidated parcels on the street running between Bridgeport and Fairfield.

Self Storage Group Development LLC of Brookline, Mass., bought 2101 Commerce Drive in Bridgeport for $2 million and broke ground this month on the project to bring a modern self-storage facility to the site.

“SSG is thrilled to be starting its ninth self-storage facility,” said Gerald Cohen, SSG Development manager. The company owns storage sites in multiple states.

The Bridgeport project, scheduled for completion in the spring of 2013, will have three to five employees.

Angel Commercial President Jon Angel called it the rebirth of Commerce Drive in Bridgeport, following years of redevelopment on the Fairfield end of the street.

“The street has become cleaner, less industrial and more `commerce’ oriented, living up to its name,” Angel said in a news release, which noted this is the first new construction on the Bridgeport end (of the street) in 30 years.

The Connecticut Limo site has been vacant for several years. It had seen better days before the company went through a bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

Paul Timpanelli, president and chief executive officer of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, said it’s not surprising there hasn’t been much new construction on Commerce Drive in Bridgeport, as it’s a small street.

The area where the new storage facility is going up is on the west side of the highway, which spans the street and there’s not much Bridgeport property to develop over there. Most of Commerce Drive in the city is east of I-95 and that’s a pretty vibrant place.

Timpanelli noted the city just completed a streetscape project to improve the area, which has plenty of businesses.

Though the business itself when it opens won’t create many jobs and the taxes it generates won’t be as high as it would for other types of business, Timpanelli said the new storage facility will “dress up the street.”

He noted the storage business has grown in the last few years in the city.

A check of YellowPages.com found eight facilities in Bridgeport alone.

“It’s a pretty successful industry,” Timpanelli said. “I just wonder, where did people store this stuff before storage facilities?”

(via CTPost.com)

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