U-Haul Takes Over Former Walker Road GM Plant

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After purchasing the abandoned Wickes Bumper Plant in East Windsor earlier this year, U-Haul is continuing their expansion in the city with a recent purchase of the former GM building on the east side of Walker Road.

The sale of the property closed on November 29th, 2015, and the building that in recent years was home to laser tag and hosted home shows will now be known as U-Haul Moving & Storage of South Walkerville.

The property includes 15.76 acres with 378,000 square feet of indoor space.  Currently the site is offering truck and trailer rentals, towing equipment, moving supplies and boxes.

Future plans include 1,000 indoor, climate-controlled storage and 100,000 square feet of indoor RV parking and storage. Their hope is to offer propane in future too, which would be accommodating to the RV owners, according to officials.

David Anstett, marketing president for U-Haul of Western Ontario says that the property is one of U-Haul’s adaptive reuse projects to meet their corporate sustainability initiatives.

“We try to save and repurpose existing building for our new store locations, particularly when the properties hold special significance in a community such as the GM factory,” said Anstett. “The store is in the heart of the city. It’s a good reuse of the old GM factory. What’s really amazing is it’s one of the last old buildings; my wife’s father worked there at the GM plant. It’s been part of the community for a long time, so I’m glad we’re saving it.”

“The indoor RV storage we will offer – nobody really has it the way we want to do it. By the summer, we plan to have the 1,000 storage units and 100,000 square feet of RV storage available for customers,” he said.