Imagine Too Many Possessions

Finding out that a Valencian company dedicated to storage is run by a young couple called Julio Calvo and Jacqueline Alvarez may not be considered unusual, not until you discover that they are in fact Canadians.

They are in fact the children of Spanish immigrants from Leon and Valladolid who left Spain looking for adventure and a better life decades ago, joining some 5,000 Spaniards currently living among the broad majestic plains and forested mountain ranges of the maple leaf state.

Their children were successful in their professions; Julio set up a company that manufactured tooling for tube and pipe mills, whereas Jacqueline was a French teacher.

However, one day, after selling his company and driving his wife to work on a cold, grey day, Julio realised that, great as Canada was, he wanted something warmer and with new challenges.

After studying their options and looking for market opportunities they finally opted for Valencia and set up one of the few specialised storage facilities available in Spain on the Alfafar commercial estate on the road south from Valencia.

 The concept, introduced by the mobility-mad Americans in the 1950s was to provide safe, secure storage conditions for a wide range of people who needed somewhere to store stuff on a short-term basis.
You might be moving house and you need to store your furniture temporarily. Perhaps you might be re-decorating and need to move your furniture elsewhere whilst renovations are taking place.
Or you may be a new business that doesn’t want to commit to a long-term lease or an established business that wants to store items but doesn’t have room.

Their company, ‘Trasteros Públicos’ offers storage space of all sizes on three floors (starting at one and a half square metres) and with all the safety and security measures imaginable, including a fully fire-proofed environment, smoke detectors and extractors, fire doors, external air ducts, a separate generator in case of power cuts and 24 hour a day closed circuit TV monitoring. Even so, customers may access their own goods using a personal code, and in some cases drive right up to their own storage area, just like the Americans love to do.

The building was a lamp factory before Julio and Jacqueline poured over a million euros into making it as safe as Fort Knox (not including that one relatively successful intrusion by Goldfinger in the James Bond film), although wandering the endless corridors one could be reminded of the empty hotel in Jack Nicholson’s film ‘The Shining’, give or take a little girl on a tricycle. What’s more, they sell all kinds of packing and packaging material at the on-site shop, including covers, so should you be in the mood to turn your home into a set from Nicole Kidman’s ‘The Others’, this would be the place to come.

About two thirds of their customers are private individuals in need of temporary space, whereas their business customers include such well known names as Proctor & Gamble, Random House Publishing Company, 3M and companies involved in the America’s Cup.

During my visit, a Finnish company had just brought in a number of Coca Cola vending machines, which were awaiting their new owners and a Real Estate company had stored its furniture and hardware while waiting for the recession to pass.

There were also some stories of human frailty in store. An old lady with terminal AIDS had left her belongings and although she would never come back for them, Julio noted that they would keep them indefinitely with no charge. Other owners, for whatever reasons had never returned after depositing their goods, or were facing legal procedures that prevented them from recuperating their belongings.

Other deposits raised an eyebrow and a laugh, including an elephant’s foot among the African paraphernalia of a once upon a time adventurer.

Another service offered to customers is a board room, which can be used free of charge for one hour a month, and at a token price for further hours.

Julio and Jacqueline could not be happier in Valencia. “Not only do we love the beaches, but we've also discovered great skiing in the Spanish Pyrenees and hope to ski in Sierra Nevada this year -so it's the best of both worlds!”
Jacqueline is taking cooking classes at the Valencia Club Cooking school and hopes to some day master the Valencian paella -in the meantime they have discovered 'El Palmar' village by the 'Albufera' lake, which offers many great restaurants dedicated to this local speciality!
They also love not only the medieval charm of the city of Valencia and the colourful display of the fresh fruit and vegetables of the Central Market, but also to go hiking on the nearby mountain trails and discover the surrounding charming towns, and of course, nothing beats the taste and experience of picking your own oranges from a friend or family's grove.
The warm climate, they tell their friends back in the (admittedly pretty) snowbound endless forests of Canada, makes for a vibrant social life and lots of opportunity to make new friends all year round. 

They themselves have made friends by attending the monthly meetings of a Valencia wine club and, as a result of contacts made there, have decided to set up another project, importing foreign wines to Valencia, to complement the excellent local wines that they have come to love.

Mind you, Valencia is not perfect, and Julio complains bitterly to local people sprawled out the sunny January beaches, that he is unable to play his beloved ice hockey here; the only ice being that which is clinking in his glass.

www.trasterospublicos.com