Space for safekeeping

Gary Arnold's storage business started small; TVs, mattresses, washing machines and furniture mostly.

Then he started picking up important documents from businesses; W-2 forms, receipts, personnel files -- any records within a 50-mile radius of Cape Girardeau.

Now he wants to store boats and RVs.

Arnold's enclosed RV and boat storage will be ready by the end of the month. He already has the first 10 spaces rented out but plans to ultimately have up to 50 storage units with 12-by-14-foot garage doors, as long as there is a demand.

Right now Arnold has about 120 smaller storage units on his gated property, and he plans on putting a third building up that will bring the number to nearly 175.

Since earlier this month, Arnold has been advertising for his document storage business.

When Iron Mountain Secure Shredding service in St. Louis bought out Shred Plus shredding and storage service in Cape Giradeau last year, area business managers didn't want their records to be moved to St. Louis, so they started renting out space at Arnold's A-1 Mini Storage at 63 Sena Fawn Drive in Cape Girardeau.

"There was more cons than pros" in moving records to St. Louis, said Shannon Norman, human resources rep of MEMCO Barge Line.

Arnold knew there was a need for a new record storage business in Southeast Missouri but needed to get it set up, so he allowed MEMCO to move its documents in one of his warehouses for free for a month or two.

"I just jumped in and sort of did it," he said. "It saves time and money for expensive office space."

In the meantime, he hired a consultant from Florida who was in the record storage business for 12 years to evaluate the facility and teach him how to set it up.

Goal of 5,000 boxes

Owner Gary Arnold has expanded A-1 Mini Storage beyond traditional storage units with business records storage services as well as a large equipment facility that will open soon.

Arnold has 1,000 to 1,200 boxes in his warehouse and said he could take up to 50,000. His goal is to reach 5,000 boxes by the end of the year and to double that number in 2008.

Some of his record-storage clients are restaurant managers, lawyers and doctors. Other markets he plans to target include banks, insurance companies, government agencies and schools.

Storage costs a monthly fee of 65 cents per box, with a $25 minimum monthly charge.

Arnold stores records in a secure, climate- and pest-controlled environment. Upon request by authorized personnel, files will be retrieved based on box and file number and brought to a private conference room that clients may use. Arnold and his employees are the only ones allowed in the warehouse.

Customers can drop their boxes off at A-1, where they will be unloaded into an empty unit and stored in a secure warehouse later on, or the boxes could be picked up.

Arnold also offers delivery service, depending on distance and the number of boxes, he said.

"I don't have time to pick up records in my busy schedule," MEMCO's Norman said. "All it takes is a quick 10-second phone call and Gary's service will be here within two or three hours."

He learned about record storing when he heard of someone calling their attorney for a copy of his trust and the attorney said, "That's going to take about four hours. We'll need to send someone to our mini storage unit."

Though there may always be a need for motor vehicle and furniture storage, that may not be the case for records in the computer age.

Jim Bollinger, vice president of Cape Girardeau County Abstract & Title Co., said he deals only with computer files in the title insurance business.

"I would expect that all record filing will be digitally stored in the future," Bollinger said. "It might take awhile before that happens."

Arnold said computer files should be backed up and stored outside of the office, and he plans to install a vault in his storage units somewhere down the road.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137