Out with the old, in with the new

A big focus for us here at Magenta in 2023 is our green commitment. We are making active steps to becoming a greener and carbon-neutral company, focusing on supporting local communities and implementing long-term sustainable solutions in our environment.

To support this mission, we took on an exciting facility development back in 2021 and towards the end of 2022 this became our brand new self storage site in Reading. Reading is our latest addition to our existing self storage centres based in West London, Banbury, Nottingham, Oxford, and St Albans. The Reading facility is our largest to date and has benefited the local community already.

To find out more about our Reading self storage facility, keep on reading (no pun intended)!

Our new Reading site

The Reading site is our sixth storage facility and is located on Darwin Close, south of Reading town centre just off the A33. As with all of our sites, we offer fixed pricing, flexible storage and our friendly staff are here to help you with your storage requirements.

The Reading site also features the latest in automation and self storage security systems and boasts over 50,000 sq ft of lettable storage space. If you can’t tell – we are pretty chuffed with it all!

The history of the Reading site

So, what’s the history of our new Reading site? We knew that rather than opt for building something new, we wanted to revive an existing building and give it a well-deserved new lease of life.

The new Reading site was previously a former local authority storage facility which was developed in the early 1970s. The property had a six-storey office which has now been converted into our environmentally friendly storage facility. The site was ranked as the most expensive property in RG2 0RB with a valuation of £2,841,000 back in 2021.

A new lease of life

We’re so proud to have transformed the site and prevented it from otherwise getting demolished. It’s gone from being a tired office block in the centre of Reading to an upgraded and modern facility, perfect for all your storage solutions.

As previously stated, we want to be as environmentally conscious as possible and believe it’s important to reuse existing properties instead of creating new builds where possible and that is exactly what we have done here. It took a while, with planning permission slowing things down but the building is now up and running and we couldn’t be more proud of the end result.

What’s the impact?

The Reading facility not only looks good but it’s doing good for the local area too – not to mention the environmental benefits that the refurb will bring.

Community impact

We’re proud that our new self storage facility is already having a positive impact on the local community in Reading. It has created multiple full-time jobs in the area, and over 30% of the storage space is already being utilised by local businesses and start-ups, supporting independent employment and small and local business ventures.

It’s not only businesses that the Reading site will bring affordable self-storage to. Think local sports teams needing to store equipment, local charities needing seasonal drop-off space, local gardeners who need to store their gardening tools and equipment, to people who need to store precious items such as antiques or family heirlooms which are currently overcrowding their homes.

Charity impact

As part of a company-wide initiative, the staff at each Magenta facility choose a local charity to support which uplifts both local and international charities. Therefore at our Reading site, the local area will benefit from our staff fundraising for their chosen local charity.

This makes the fundraising much more personal – especially if our staff have benefited from these charities previously. We want to ensure that we are doing our bit so that local charities can continue with the great work that they do.

Green impact

As previously mentioned, we strive to be carbon-neutral to help build a cleaner community. We are happy to announce that the Reading site, along with other Magenta sites are proud to use:

• Renewable energy
• E-charging points at all sites for electric vehicles
• Solar panels
• Paperless procedures

Not only that, but for every new customer that we gain, we plant a tree to help fight the climate crisis and sustain wildlife around the world.

Your self storage needs in Reading!

Want to find out more about our NEW Reading self storage facility and how we can help you?

We work hard to take the headache out of organising secure storage and are passionate about making storage simple. That’s why we can cater for any size storage need – tailored to you! We are pleased to say that our Reading storage facility is alarmed/ monitored and is accessible up to seven days a week!

For all enquiries for our Reading storage options, contact us today on 0118 321 1566 or email: reading@magentastorage.co.uk