The once former shell of the Orange County Choppers Building has now been converted into a new operational business known as Safe Haven Self Storage at 14 Crossroads Courts in the Town of Newburgh. Customers, new and old are welcome to come tour the facility. Safe Haven has facilities both in New York and Connecticut.

Bernard Mittelman of Safe Haven was grateful for the opportunity to have the facility open and operational, welcoming customers to tour and take advantage of their storage services. “We treat self-storage customers like a customer needs to be treated,” said Mittelman. “We want this to be a happy experience. Some people, when they use self-storage, it’s not such a happy occasion. Could be a divorce, could be a move they didn’t like so at least this part, we want to give them a good experience and not a bad experience.”

While the opening is a successful step, the process to get open was a challenge that was able to be overcomed explained Mittelman. “It was a hard process, wasn’t easy. Approval process is not easy. The construction part is not easy, but we’re finally here,” said Mittelman. “We have a good product. The final touches will be done in the next couple of weeks. The use of the building has changed, but we do believe it has changed for the better.”

Senior Manager Deanna Ward, who has been with the company for the past five and a half years, equally expressed her excitement for the facility to be open. “Our company is all about customer service. I know there’s a lot of competition in the area. Storage is not something that’s hard to find. Our motto is we try to provide the best customer service possible,” said Ward. “When customers come in, we’re all about retaining the customers, making sure they’re happy. We give good discounts, we do military discounts, just the best customer service that we can.”

Ward continued that the business has seen new customers come through but due to its newness, there is the concern about the public not being aware it’s open. Ward explained that the company was working towards more signage to help spread the word on its opening. “They have a huge advertising budget, so everybody knows they’re there. We’re a small company, so we have that disadvantage, but we rely a lot on word of mouth and customer referral,” said Ward. “We are looking to get this facility where we can do car storage. We want to do classic car storage in the basement and we’ll be able to do regular vehicle parking outside.”

With the process of hiring new staff for the business, Ward explained it is important to provide the best customer service each time to new and existing customers. No matter the occasion, Safe Haven works to make sure the process is run smoothly. Ward continued that the facility is temperature controlled and is available to the customer from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Rental units can be accessed via an app that would be downloaded and access can be shared with others. Notifications are also sent when the unit is accessed.