U-Haul, a moving equipment and storage rental company, is repurposing a former Kmart in Ammon for a self-storage facility.

U-Haul bought the 103,977-square-foot building Aug. 14, and a U-Haul Moving and Storage branch is using the building as a rental facility in a temporary showroom, according to a news release.

Once repurposed, the facility will have about 900 indoor self-storage units with climate-controlled rooms. Propane, hitch installation and portable moving and storage containers will be available in the future, the release said.

“We are eager to put our adaptive reuse program to work in the Ammon community,” said Casey Jones, president of U-Haul Company of Idaho, in the release. “Many large box stores close and stay dark for years. Our reuse of this building will be great for U-Haul, the environment and our neighbors.”

The acquisition of the Kmart property is part of U-Haul’s Corporate Sustainability Initiatives, a set of economically, environmentally and socially responsible goals. The company buys abandoned buildings and repurposes them, saving energy and building materials, to reduce local communities’ carbon footprints.

The Kmart in Ammon closed in January. It was one of dozens of Kmarts and other Sears Holdings Corp. (the company that owns Kmart, the Kenmore Brand, DieHard batteries and Shop Your Way, a shopping rewards program) stores that closed around the country earlier this year.

Hundreds of Kmart and Sears stores have closed nationwide in recent years, as brick and mortar stores continue to struggle against online competitors. Sears at the Grand Teton Mall in Idaho Falls remains open.

Thornton Oliver Keller, an Idaho Falls-based commercial real estate firm, brokered the deal between Sears Holdings Corp. and U-Haul.

“Our firm handles real estate disposition for Sears and Kmart,” said Brent Wilson, who helped facilitate the deal alongside Brian Wilson and Bob Mitchell of Thornton Oliver Keller. When the property was listed, U-Haul “came out and took a look and said, ‘We’ll take it,’” Wilson said.

The location is a “no-brainer” because of its proximity to a growing residential area in Ammon, Wilson said.

“They want to be close to the rooftops,” he said. “If you look at the core of the residential growth, it’s in the east.”

Jones expects to hire seven or more local employees when the Ammon storage facility is complete, the news release said. It will be the 10th U-Haul self-storage facility in Idaho.

“We’re still in the planning phases, but we hope to be fully operational in early 2019,” he said. “Time is everything, and we want to save customers from driving 20 minutes across town to our nearest location.”

Wilson said U-Haul is buying former Kmart stores all over the country, and the company is expected to close a deal, later this month, on another storage facility in Idaho Falls. Wilson said he couldn’t reveal the location until the deal is complete.

The new facility will be located at 3101 E. 17th St. in Ammon.