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 Ferris
Solomon can hardly believe the success of the boat and RV
storage business his family started just two years ago in
Jacksonville, Fla. The Solomons were well known around town
for their other businesses, primarily freight salvage. Over
the years, they’d also invested in various land parcels.
The idea of launching a storage facility was virtually an
afterthought.
“We’d been operating our freight business out of a
75,000-squarefoot building on 6 acres we’d bought on Beach
Boulevard here in Jacksonville,” Ferris explains. “Some
adjacent property came up on the market a few years ago, and
we bought another 7 acres. The property was kind of wooded,
and kind of just sitting there. I said, ‘You know, we
ought to be able to come up with something to do with this
property that would at least pay for the property
taxes.’”
A friend who owned a flourishing marina casually
mentioned to Ferris how busy he was, and how he needed a
place to refer customers with boat trailers and RVs to
store. “It was like a light bulb coming on,” Ferris
recalls. “I thought, daggumit, this would be a great
location.”
Getting Started
 The
Solomon trio—Ferris, his brother, Douglas, and nephew,
George—looked into costs and, armed with a few issues of Inside
Self- Storage for guidance, jumped into the storage
business. Ferris’ assessment of the property as a great
location turned out to be an understatement. The parcel was
on a main road in a high-growth area, close to the
inter-coastal waterway, a major public ramp and the
interstate.
Ferris believed offering both RV and boat storage would
be the fastest way to fill up. Several marinas were in the
area and an RV dealer operated down the road. “We were
really new to it,” Ferris says. “We thought we could get
by with a grass lot, and found out quickly that wasn’t
going to work—we got tired of calling wreckers to pull the
RVs out of the sand.”
Crushcrete, a byproduct of concrete, solved the surface
problem. The Solomons enclosed all 14 acres of the storage
area with an 8-foot, welded-steel fence from a German
manufacturer. Ample lighting and video-surveillance cameras
were added, along with an area for customers to wash their
boats and vehicles. Having pulled a boat in the past, Ferris
knew the difficulty of backing up boats and RVs, and decided
to sacrifice some storage space to include wide roads in the
design.
 Before
beginning their storage project, the Solomons had to win the
proper zoning. In a public hearing, nearby homeowners voiced
concerns over the possibility of viewing unsightly
broken-down trailers and boats from their backyards. They
were pacified with promises to construct an attractive
50-foot berm, heavily landscaped to screen the area.
“Everyone was very pleased and happy with what we did,”
Ferris says.
Solomon’s RV & Boat Storage features 400 units,
nearly all uncovered. Monthly rates vary according to size.
The $ 125 spot is 40-feet deep and allows renters the luxury
of driving through. Cost for a 40- foot space requiring
drivers to exercise their parking skills is $95. Interior
spaces, which are 12-by-28 feet, go for $89 per month.
Rewards Rain Down
Fate did its part to help push Solomon’s RV & Boat
Storage to success. In booming Jacksonville, marinas are
fast being snatched up by developers who replace them with
high-dollar condominiums. Though a few of the condos are
including wet slips, average boat owners are increasingly
priced out of the market and left with nowhere affordable to
store their watercraft. Also, decades-old ordinances
prohibiting homeowners from parking boats and RVs in their
front yards suddenly began to be enforced—six months after
Solomon’s opened its doors.
 “That
generated a little bit of traffic,” Ferris says.
“We’ve always had a good reputation in our other
businesses, so we knew a few people in boat and RV sales who
sent us customers too.”
Creative leasing of other parts of the expansive property
provided even more storage income. Boat King, a boat
retailer, leased 30,000 square feet for operations and
reserved some rental spaces as well. “As they sell boats
to people, those who don’t live on the water or have
access to a marina are also storing their boats with us,”
Ferris says. “We have a lot going for us.”
Another chunk of the former freight-business headquarters
is leased to World Gym. Ferris estimates 25,000 square feet
of warehouse space is left; the family plans to convert it
to a climate-controlled, records-storage facility next year.
Future enhancements include the addition of covered
boat/RV units. Ferris’ research indicates the metal,
three-sided covers will cost $4,500 each. If the right
contractor is found, the Solomons would like to construct 20
to 50 in the near future. In the meantime, Ferris has
conceived an economical way to slowly make improvements.
Tenants who desire covers may erect them at their own
expense, with the caveat they meet all city specifications
on wind load, etc. The structure stays with Solomon’s, and
in exchange, the tenant receives a free year’s rent.
“It enables me to get some covered storage without
having to pay for it, and at the same time get future higher
rents,” Ferris says. Seven patrons have participated in
the offer so far.
.... the Solomons have enjoyed running an enterprise that
is far less labor-intensive and time-consuming than past
endeavors. Ferris says the storage business has vastly
exceeded his expectations. Most important, the reliable
income stream and light workload motivated him to make a
major lifestyle change.
“I was hoping this would just bring in enough money to
pay taxes on the property, but it’s allowed me to
semi-retire with the freight salvage business we’ve been
in for 30 years,” Ferris says. “Now, instead of working
10 hours a day, six days a week, I’m down to six hours a
day, five days a week. I’m taking some time off and doing
things with my wife and family I should have been doing
years ago, but couldn’t. It’s really worked out well.
I’ve been very fortunate.” For more information on
Solomon’s RV & Boat Storage, call 904.223.0888; e-mail
solomons@fdn.com;
visit www.solomons.net.
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