The Mall at Prince Georges in Hyattsville is adding an underground self-storage facility as its owners seek to recover from a pandemic-induced bankruptcy scare.
The 90,000-square-foot underground storage space will be built by Poverni Sheikh Group LLC, a Baltimore-based developer that has built similar self-storage spaces in Rockville and Baltimore.
The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which has owned the Hyattsville mall since 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November amid a dramatic drop in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It later made a deal with lenders to avoid bankruptcy by finding new sources of revenue. Self-storage spaces are generally considered recession-proof, as people need them in good and bad times, and developers are taking advantage of the current drop in demand for restaurants, shops and office space to make deals on land.
The Mall at Prince Georges has one of PREIT’s highest occupancy rates, but the company has sought to diversify by adding restaurants like Miller’s Ale House on space in its parking lot.
