U-Haul Paid $800K for Ward Bakery Building

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A company that provides real estate and development services to the U-Haul Co. system purchased the Ward Bakery Building for $800,000 from James and Tamara Deeley, who do business as Ward Riverworks LLC.

The sale of the structure to Amerco Real Estate of Phoenix was recorded Tuesday by the Mahoning County Auditor.

The Deeleys, of the Youngstown area, bought the 30,000-square-foot, three-story building at 1024 Mahoning Ave., just east of downtown, in 2016 for $220,000.

U-Haul announced last week that it purchased the building and will renovate it into approximately 800 self-storage rental units. The moving and storing company already has a store and more storage units across the street.

The Ward Bakery Building was built in 1923 and was originally a bakery. It had housed dozens of artist studios from the 1970s until June, the deadline for tenants to vacate.

The building had multiple fire code violations that will reportedly require at least $200,000 to rectify.

About a dozen artists had studios in the building in April, when the eviction notices were delivered. The artists were forced to find new locations, with some putting their equipment in storage as they mounted a search.

The Ward Bakery Building is the second purchase U-Haul has made this year in the Mahoning Valley.

The company last week purchased a structure at 2425 North River Road in Warren that was formerly a Tops Friendly Market grocery store, as well as an attached parcel at 3406 Elm Road that once housed a CVS Pharmacy and a former Chase Bank building at 3395 North River Road. The sale price was $3.27 million, according to the Trumbull County Auditor.

The 7.8-acre property in Warren will be renovated into a U-Haul store, truck rental and storage unit facility. It is scheduled to open in summer 2025, according to a press release from the company.

The 69,000-square-foot structure will be divided into 1,000 indoor storage units, according to the press release. It will include a warehouse that can store up to 500 U-Box portable moving and storage containers.

Once renovations are finished, the store will also offer services such as professional hitch installation and propane.

U-Haul is currently serving Warren-area customers out of a temporary retail showroom at the River Road site.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.