Norris boat storage facility opened, expanding
AB Boat & RV Storage has opened along Andersonville Highway in Norris. While some units are already open and occupied, two additional buildings are under construction, which will give the facility a total of 58 enclosed, secure storage units. This facility is not related to one still in the planning stages nearby. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
As a result, the facility is adding two more storage sheds to bring the total number of closed, secure boat and recreational-vehicle storage sheds to 58, said Marvin Stanford, whose company, Stanford Steel Builders of LaFollette, is the contractor for the facility.
Boats and RVs get their own garage-style spaces with lockable overhead doors, keeping them out of the weather when they’re not in use.
Stanford and his crew were on scene erecting the superstructure for the two additional storage buildings last week, and will continue to work until they are finished, Stanford said.
Helping on site are his son, John Stanford, along with Dewayne Gibson and Jacob Shoun.
Just down the street less than a quarter mile toward Andersonville, next door to the Chunky Monkey ice cream store, a new boat sales and service lot is preparing to open.
It’s a second location for Marine Specialists, which already has a larger boat sales and service facility in Powell.
Although several new boats have already been moved to the site, the driveway entrances remain blocked by trucks, and the building is unattended.
Calls to the company’s posted telephone numbers have not been returned, so it’s unknown yet when the sales and service business will open.
Meanwhile, LaFollette-based Big Creek Marine, which announced early this year that it would build a $3 million boat sales, service and storage facility along Andersonville Highway in Norris, still has not brought plans to the Norris Planning Commission for approval, and has not sought a building permit.
Owner James Broyles said late last week that a “property abandonment issue: concerning a road that was proposed by the city but never completed has forced a delay in his plans to begin construction on the boat store and storage facility.
“We will probably go before the Norris Planning Commission in January,” Broyles said.
Both of the other new businesses – the boat storage facility and the boat sales and service store – completely unrelated to Broyles or each other – have been set up in Norris since Broyles announced his plan.
Big Creek Marine, LLC., plans to sell and service luxury boats and provide year-round protected storage for pleasure boats. The site is on the south side of Andersonville Highway between Exit 122 Outdoor Power Equipment and Meadow View Senior Living.
City officials had expected Big Creek Marine to bring its proposed site and building plans to the Norris Planning Commission in April or May, after the City Council OK’d the rezoning in March.
But the project was still not on the agenda for last week’s December Planning Commission meeting.