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Top Gun Storage Solutions Eyes New Business Opportunities
Missourian Photo/Ethan Colbert • Mar 04, 2021
Missourian Photo/Ethan Colbert
A person driving down Danny Scott Drive in New Haven could make the assumption that the cluster of gray-painted metal-sided buildings were just another run-of-the-mill self-storage business, but Top Gun Storage Solutions Founder and CEO Zach Zuroweste said there is much more to his business than initially meets the eye.
In fact, those “metal-sided buildings” are actually repurposed shipping containers — containers that likely traveled across oceans on cargo ships, then atop barges on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, aboard a railcar or semitruck on their way to New Haven.
“Initially we were just going to do self-storage with shipping containers, but it’s turned into quite a bit more,” Zuroweste said. “About 20 percent of our business is (on-site) self-storage, the rest is fabrication.”
In addition to self-storage customers, the containers are also gaining attention from new customers looking for “She Sheds” and “Man Caves,” which are increasing in popularity throughout the region.
They also make great offices, according to Zuroweste, who converted a container for Top Gun Storage’s office.
“On the outside it looks like a shipping container, but on the inside it looks a like a traditional office and that’s exactly the point,” Zuroweste said. “We’ve added electrical, heating, as well as windows to make this into a normal office.”
Plumbing also can be added.
The company’s latest new opportunity came in the form of a coveted Department of Defense contract in early October. Top Gun is currently transforming two shipping containers into offices for a military base in Naval Air Station Oceana near Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“That was a pretty big day for us,” said Zuroweste, who is a veteran of the Navy and a pilot with United Airlines.
“Getting a government contract is quite possibly the most difficult part of what we do because getting these contracts can be quite lucrative. It took us over a year and a half to get the first one,” said Zuroweste, who added that he now anticipates the government and military will be submitting more orders for the mobile offices. He declined to disclose the amount of the contracts.
In order to complete the Virginia base’s order, Zuroweste said Top Gun has partnered with local contractors, Innovative Construction Services and Zelch Welding, to transform the shipping containers into office spaces that will house up to five or six working spaces for the base. A local trucking company, Bockting Trucking, will deliver the containers to Virginia.
“Now that we are starting to win government contracts and things like that, we are going to be bringing additional work here to town, which has been a big goal of ours from the beginning,” said Zuroweste, who is a 1997 graduate of New Haven High School.
“Anytime we can use local businesses to do something here, then we are going to hire them,” said Zuroweste, adding that 63 different local businesses have been contracted by Top Gun since the company’s founding.
The company also plans to hire between five or 10 workers in the late spring or early summer of 2021 as it expands the fabrication portion of the business, which has until now been a family business with Zuroweste’s parents, Curt and Kathie Zuroweste working in the front office. The couple recently retired from owning the Colony House restaurant in New Haven.
Top Gun also is building a 3,600-square-foot temporary fabrication facility, made from shipping containers and a temporary roof, that once constructed will allow fabricators to continue to work through the winter months and inclement weather.
Expanding its fabrication operation is an important first step for Zuroweste as he considers fabricating tiny homes, another movement that is gaining popularity in large and small cities across the country.
“There is a ton of opportunity for tiny homes. One place in California just bought 100 containers to do exactly that for tiny homes for veterans,” Zuroweste said. “So we are looking at how can we do something similar, not just for veterans but maybe also for housing for the homeless.
Top Gun Storage opened in 2018 with financing from Citizen’s Bank following Zuroweste’s retirement from the military in 2015. The idea for the business stems from his experiences in the military, where he flew F-18 jets.
“As you travel the world with the military, you notice that shipping containers were being used for so many things, everything from self-storage, to homes and barracks for the military when our troops are out on forward operating bases, to homes for people who live in the Middle East. So while these shipping containers are used throughout the world, they are not used in the U.S. very much,” Zuroweste said.
“Right now, the container market is very tight and it is due to COVID-19,” Zuroweste said. He added, despite the tight market, he is still able to buy containers from Malaysia, China, Africa and Europe, and see them arrive within two months. The pandemic also has forced Top Gun to travel to Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis to pick up its order of shipping containers.
An on-site 20-foot container rents for $67 per month, plus a $10 administrative fee, a cleaning fee and taxes. An on-site 40-feet rents for $107 per month. The company also offers rental rates for commercial businesses.
Top Gun partners with Bulk Container Group, a multi-national shipping container brokerage, which helps Top Gun purchase containers around the globe.
“We’re on Zoom calls nearly every morning with people in Switzerland and Germany talking about buying and moving shipping containers,” Zuroweste said. “It is kind of crazy that this company that we started here has now developed into something quite a bit larger. There is now not a part of the U.S. or the world that I can’t get a container from or to, which is pretty impressive.”
Ezy Wheels Heavy Duty 8 lug 7,000 lbs SWL capacity. In use at Top Gun Storage Solutions in New Haven Missouri, USA. Feb. 2021 topgunstoragesolutions.com (636) 283-0079 Top Gun Storage Solutions LLC are exclusive North American representatives & distributors of Ezy Engineering products and technology. ezyengineeringusa.com
Ezy Wheels Heavy Duty 6 lug 6,000 lbs SWL capacity. In use at Top Gun Storage Solutions in New Haven Missouri, USA. Feb. 2021 topgunstoragesolutions.com (636) 283-0079 Top Gun Storage Solutions LLC are exclusive North American representatives & distributors of Ezy Engineering products and technology. ezyengineeringusa.com
TGSS is an authorized builder and reseller of all Accu-Steel products. Have a look at our time lapse video of the 50’ x 60’ fabrication facility erected at our location in New Haven, MO.
A new concept in the storage unit industry is off to a good start at New Haven Industrial Park II. Top Gun Storage Solutions opened on Danny Scott Drive in early July with ten storage units made from fabricated steel shipping containers, an innovative alternative to standard storage units. Plans eventually call for up to six rows of storage containers, located just inside the industrial park on a 6.5-acre lot behind Toedtmann and Grosse Funeral Home on Highway C. Zuroweste and his wife, Monica, started Top Gun after a combined 31 years in the military. Zuroweste was a naval aviator who is now a commercial pilot. “Business is going well, and the community support is fantastic,” he told the Independent News. “And we’re adding capacity on site so we’re pleased with that.” Four more containers were delivered in recent weeks. Another offering, “On Your Site Storage,” caters to the off-site customer. Farmers with a need for a tool shed or machine shop or a place to house their animals, for instance, can order containers. Units are fabricated and sold for offsite use. “The off-site stuff is going well,” Zuroweste said. “We just delivered one outside of town and they are turning it into a ‘she shed’ so it’s painted red and white like their barn, with a door and louvers.” Another customer on Olive Road also ordered a container to use as a storage shed on his property. Zuroweste said customer feedback on the new business has been good. “We’re getting good reports from the customers,” he said. “They like what they’re seeing. They like the option of cargo doors or man doors depending on what they want. We’ve got repeat customers as well. A lot of people are moving locations, building houses, and just want storage, so that’s going well.” Top Gun is still promoting on-site parking for semis, boats and trailers. Outdoor storage space for recreational vehicles and boat trailers, as well as tractor-trailers in need of a place to park, is offered on-site. Commercial drivers can park their private vehicle there when they are with their rig on the road. “We’re offering specials, trying to get that part of the business going,” Zuroweste said. “It’s all a learning process. But we’ve been pleasantly surprised and thrilled about the community support.” He added, “For anybody that has a commercial truck that needs a place to go and they don’t want to park it all the way down at Mr. Fuel or wherever, this gets them off the street, which makes the local police happy.” With the boating season over, boat owners also have the option to store their boats there. “And we have the square footage to do it,” he noted. Zuroweste has also been able to give something back to the community, starting with offering a scholarship to a graduating New Haven senior in his business’s first year of operation. “I’ll be getting in contact with the high school about that,” he said. “It will be a small one this year, but that’s one of my big goals was to do a scholarship for the kids out there.” Top Gun was also able to purchase a hog at the Town & Country Fair that was raised by a local youth. “That’s the most rewarding part, getting to reinvest in a kid the first year,” he said. “That was the biggest goal of mine and, gosh darn it, we’re getting to do it.” To improve container delivery times, Top Gun has obtained a semi and a trailer to haul them to the site. “We can put one on site basically the next day if somebody calls instead of waiting two or three weeks when we had to contract it out,” Zuroweste said. “It’s working out pretty nicely.” Like any new business, there are hurdles to clear along the way. “A lot of learning had happened the last several months, but all in all we’re pleased how things are going,” he said.
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Top Gun Storage Solutions believes investment in our local community and future leaders helps make our world a better place. We constantly evaluate new ways give back to the community through philanthropic initiatives. Our current and former initiatives include our local scholarship programs, market animal purchases, and charitable donations.
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