From fire comes … storage

Former owner of BR Mulch reshapes his fire-torn property into a supersize storage facility

Many Tipp Citizens will remember BR Mulch, the landscaping business on Ginghamsburg Road that burned in 2020. Others in Tipp will recognize the cheerful Angela’s Circle of Friends school bus that winds its way through our neighborhoods on weekdays, ferrying wee ones between school and Angela’s Child Care and Learning Center.

What folks might not know is that the masterminds behind these two businesses—Bart and Angela Replogle—have put their heads together to open a brand-new company. Storage Kingdom, offering climate-controlled small-to-extra-large storage spaces, opened its doors this year, right on the grounds of the former BR Mulch.

In this article, Bart explains to the Gazette why he created Storage Kingdom and how it’s different from other storage facilities in our area.

What inspired you to open a storage facility?

I rented a storage unit when I was in my 20s, and I’ve been wanting to do storage ever since. My family also travels in an RV, and we love our “toys”—boats, ATVs, cars, you name it. We realized that others have the same love and need a secure place to keep their toys. But storage is a very expensive business to get into, and it took us a while to make it happen. We’ve finally been able to pull it off.  

I had a landscaping business for a long time, BR Mulch, and that’s a grueling, labor-intensive business. Storage offers a more streamlined operation, without the hard labor. Angela and I can work here together for the rest of our lives.

What’s special about Storage Kingdom compared to the other facilities around here?

There are a few things that are special. First of all, we have standard indoor storage spaces—5 x10 feet up to 10x40. But we also have extra-large indoor spaces: 15x40 all the way up to 20x50. You can keep a large trailer, watercraft, or even an RV in those units. The extra-large units also come with an automatic garage door opener, and the units have interior lights and electric outlets. So you can also do some work in the space if you need to.

We also have temperature-controlled units, from 10x12 feet up to 15x50 feet. What’s special about these units is that they have drive-up access. Most places that have temperature-controlled storage, it’s inside a building, and you have to carry your stuff into the building and down a long hallway to your unit. Here, you can just drive right up to the door and load your stuff in, or drive your vehicle in. 

Finally, for folks who are just looking for a low-cost place to store a trailer, RV, or watercraft, we have outdoor parking. Those spaces go from 10x25 feet up to 12x50 feet.

Can you walk us through the day when the fire struck BR Mulch?

I had owned the property that BR Mulch was on since 2003, and we had a good business. The fire happened on Christmas Eve in 2020. I and two other guys were at the office. We normally never took off for lunch, but since it was Christmas Eve, we decided to head uptown to Hinders. Pretty soon, my phone started ringing. People were calling me because they saw smoke coming from the facility. By the time we got back, fire crews from Tipp and West Milton were already there.

A tub grinder, that’s a big machine used for chopping up wood waste, had caught on fire somehow. It got so hot that the steel oil tank on the grinder burst. It was a windy day, and about 300 gallons of burning hydraulic oil blew onto another machine, a front-end loader, that was parked nearby. Some of the mulch piles also caught fire. Flames were shooting 20, 30 feet into the air.  

The fire departments had everything under control in just over an hour. But for me, it was a total loss — two industrial-grade machines gone just like that.

I had to do some thinking after that. To be honest, the insurance I had on the machines wouldn’t cover replacing them. I had to decide whether to put a big investment into buying new machines, and kind of going backward—or put the investment into something new and move forward.

I decided to move forward.

How did you convert the land into being ready for storage?

It was a multi-year project that included several stages of engineering. We had some machines left over from the landscaping business, so my son Devon and I did all the excavation and grading on the land, dug out the septic and the well, dug out the catch basins and trenches for all the utilities, and completed all the other site work on the property. We started work the month that he graduated high school. He had to learn on the job really fast.

What are your goals for the future?

Our goal for the business is to get up to 90% of the units filled and keep it at that level. Once we get the units full, we’re planning on growth: expanding and building more units and parking spaces on the remainder of the property.

We also want people to connect us, Bart and Angela, with the business, and know who’s watching over their stuff. People have trusted us with their kids at Angela’s Circle of Friends for a long time. We want them to trust us now with their storage.

Visit Storage Kingdom at 620 Ginghamsburg Rd. or at www.storagekingdomllc.com.