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BEAUMONT, Calif. -- Eucalyptus at Beaumont is poised to provide needed owned RV storage for some of the 3,500 RVs that may be evicted from Orange County, Calif.

The El Toro Marine Base (MCAS) was closed in 1999, and the abandoned runways soon morphed into the nation's largest RV storage lot. In July of 2005, Lennar Corp purchased the Marine Base to make way for new housing and the Orange County Great Park. Lennar and its subset, Fivepoint Communities, secured needed construction financing and broke ground Jan. 31 on the first of over 10,000 homes and 1 million square feet of commercial development.

The stored 3,500 RV’s are right in the path of the construction, which means the RVs may have to go away -- possibly far away, said Ted Deits, developer of Eucalyptus at Beaumont, a unique condominium (individually owned) storage project.

"Where will all those RVs go?" he asked. "It is going to be a real problem. There is little available storage in the Orange County area suited for large vehicles like RVs, and land is simply too expensive and rare to make economic sense for RV storage. Cities do not like non-revenue (sales tax) generating uses."

After approaching 15 cities in Orange County before settling in Beaumont, Deits said he was turned down by every city even though they all had ordinances against parking RVs in residential areas.

"None of them would allow the construction of an RV storage lot. Sort of a NIMBY [not in my back yard] attitude." Deits explained. "A recent example is the city of Huntington Beach, where on June 21 2010, they voted unanimously against a RV storage project that would have stored 557 RVs."

Some businesses have rented large warehouses and have started storing RVs clustered inside. But, Deits said the cost is prohibitive from $10 to $14 per foot, which is four times the cost of storage at El Toro.

"This solution is temporary at best. Further I am not certain how effective the fire protection is," Deits said, "If one RV catches fire, they all catch fire.

"Certainly the cost of RV storage will increase dramatically, especially in the Orange County areas," said Deits. "It is already occurring as the word of this calamity gets out. Sales at Eucalyptus at Beaumont have increased four fold in the last two months. We are running out of garages and this is before any of the RVs have even been asked to move. Once the RV owners get their eviction notices, it will be every man for himself."

The prospects for building any new RV storage projects are very unlikely as Orange County land is too expensive, and frankly, for small developers, construction financing is non existent in this challenged economy, Deits explained. The remaining storage operators will pretty much have a monopoly and will charge accordingly, he predicted.

"It is simply supply and demand. Too much demand, too little supply equals higher prices. The remaining RV storage operators will have their payday soon," Deits said, "I built Eucalyptus at Beaumont to allow for the individual ownership of enclosed RV storage. I saw this coming in 2003 when I conceived the idea. People are going to have to control their storage costs if they are going to continue to enjoy the RV lifestyle. Owning your storage has always made sense, now more than ever."

Deits is the developer of Eucalyptus at Beaumont, a condominium storage concept that allows for individual ownership of fully enclosed storage garages. “A private storage community” is their tag line.

For more information, visit www.rvstorage.biz .

SOURCE: Eucalyptus at Beaumont press release