Capitola Self Storage

A Place for Everything

By Jon Chown

Joshua Nathan, manager of Capitola Self Storage at 809 Bay View, Capitola, understands his customers are often in a difficult spot. After all, who moves their stuff into storage for the fun of it?

“A lot of times when you have to store, it’s not because you’re in a happy place in your life. You’re moving, going through a divorce, a family crisis, you’re home has been flooded or burned. Most of the time, our first-time customers are anxious, occasionally even crying,” he said.

That is why Capitola Self Storage was created. In times like that, who needs more stress? The indoor, super-safe, super-clean facility is green certified and accessible 365 days a year from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It’s even dog friendly. It’s far different than the rough-and-tumble image of storage facilities one associates with shows like “Storage Wars.”

“I hate that show,” Nathan said. “Storage Wars gives the industry a bad name. … We are not here to sell people’s things.”

Instead, Nathan and his assistant Chris Bowman are there to help.
“Our rates have to be comparable, but our service doesn’t,” Bowman said. “What we offer is just worlds above the competition. We constantly get compliments how nice it is here, how safe they feel when they come to our storage at night.”

Bowman can generally be found cleaning. It’s one of the reasons that the stainless steel in the bathroom sparkles and the facility’s floors and walls have a sheen to them.

“We’re very vigilant about making sure everything is safe and clean,” Bowman said. “We want people to feel comfortable here. We feel like that’s our place in the industry — where people are most comfortable and safe.”

Nathan said Capitola Self Storage has distinct advantages by being indoors. It is open at night and the building has low humidity, the rooms are kept warmer. When Capitola was flooded in 2011, the Capitola Museum moved a lot of the town’s history into the building and some of it has remained for safekeeping. Capitola Self Storage charges a reduced rate for the space and artwork from the museum decorates the inside walls.

Helping the museum is just one example Capitola Self Storage’s citizenship. It also sponsors the sand castle contest at the annual Begonia Festival.

“We want to be the community’s place for storage. We do a lot of charity and community work. We help the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival, Capitola Junior Guards, Toys for Tots, the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony and others,” Nathan said. “We do it because we live here and want to help our community.”
Capitola Self Storage has around 500 tenants and Bowman said she knows every one of them by name. Whether they are storing items for an estate sale or instruments for their blues band, she said she enjoys helping. Tenants also find the community corkboards helpful where they can post things like business cards or flyers for events, and there is a classified section for tenants to place items for sale.

“We have a lot of local businesses store here and people with apartments that have overflow. Sometimes it’s caregivers that live with clients and patients and this is their extended closet,” Nathan said. “We’re all about Capitola. We are part of the community and make sure we operate in a Capitola type of way. We’re not corporate here — it’s just Christine and I.”

“And we’re both nice,” Bowman chimed in, hurrying off with a broom in her hand.