In 2015, Chris Waddle was looking for a side hustle to supplement his income when he eventually retired from the Reno Police Department.
Storage was a possibility, he thought, especially because he needed a place to store his own things. A decade later, what started as a side project has turned into a full-time job and then some for the founder of Admiral Toy Storage.
Admiral Toy Storage recently held a grand opening for its 95,000-square-foot indoor storage facility on Innovation Drive in south Reno.
The company was founded in a modest 40,000-square-foot space on Linda Way in Sparks.
“We originally started the business as something for me in retirement, but it was too early – eight years before I was planning to retire, and I worked an extra year,” said Waddle, who retired in 2024 as a detective after spending 21 years with the Reno Police Department.
Leveraging his connections within the department, Waddle had the first 10,000 square feet on Linda Way rented out within a few months. Waddle said a fortuitous break came shortly after when Jeff Holleman, former head of boat service at Reno Toy Storage, struck out on his own as owner of High Altitude Watersports and brought 150 boats with him.
“We ran out of space quickly when he told me 100 boats were coming,” Waddle said. “He said he would give me 60 boats in 30 days and 90 boats in 60 days, but it was 90 boats in about three weeks – they were just pouring through the doors. It was great.”
The timing was especially beneficial, as Waddle had signed a lease that had gradual increases in his rent, and he was getting ready to seek outside investors or try to get funding through the Small Business Administration to keep the operation afloat.
Suddenly, though, he was in the black and stayed there. The influx of clientele also ended up changing Waddle’s business model. Originally, he focused on just toy storage, but after picking up such a large volume of business, he expanded his service offerings in response to client demand.
Concierge services include full interior and exterior boat detailing, housecleaning for RVs and motorhomes, transportation services to any destination, and hospitality such as shopping and stocking RVs prior to vacations.
“We have a lot of people who come down, pull their RV out, load it up, and then will come back down the next morning because they can’t leave it overnight in their neighborhoods,” Waddle said.
“We also have a client who owns an Airstream, but he doesn’t own a vehicle he can tow it with. When he wants it set up, we take it and set it up for him.”
Waddle also has helped clients dispose of RVs for sale by taking them to RV hotbeds such as Coburg, Oregon, or Mesa, Arizona. His main revenue from transportation, however, is moving boats.
Admiral Toy Storage has moved luxury boats all over the country, Waddle said.
“Just last year I took a boat to Indianapolis,” he said. “Some of the big boats here also go down to San Diego for repairs because they need specialists.”
Admiral Toy Storage eventually rented the entire 120,000-square-foot building on Linda Way, as well as most of the yard space, and later added a second 57,000-square-foot facility nearby. When the lease on that satellite building came due, Waddle decided to surrender the space in favor of an expansion to south Reno.
Chase Houston, senior vice president with Logic Commercial Real Estate, helped Admiral Toy Storage locate and lease the new facility. The south Reno location positions Admiral Toy Storage to continue capturing additional market share, as well as provide much-needed room for growth.
The newer Class A warehouse also has more favorable 55×50 interior column spacing, which allows for increased storage and enhances workflow when moving boats or RV around inside the facility. The rent is much higher at the new property owned by Rocklin, California real estate developer Massie & Co. than at the old Class C warehouse in Sparks, but Waddle said the proximity to the burgeoning south Reno market offsets the higher rent.
“That’s the reason I really pushed to make this budget work – this is not a cheap building,” he said. “But this building opens up the southern Reno market. A lot of clients want to store their items here because it’s closer to their homes and has freeway access.”
The company currently stores about 100 cars, a similar number of RVs and motorhomes, and several hundred boats across 217,000 square feet of storage space in Reno and Sparks. The south Reno storage facility has about 35,000 to 40,000 square feet left to rent, Waddle said. It also includes 3,000 square feet of Class A office space that Waddle intends to sublet.
Admiral Toy Storage employs five, but Waddle said he will bring on a few additional employees this year. His mother came out of retirement to help, his brother is property manager, and his nephew is the warehouse supervisor.
“We are a family business,” Waddle said. “Only one person on staff is not a family member.”
The company’s growth brought on the need to seek outside investment capital since move-in required a substantial down payment, Waddle said. It also made what started out as a side hustle feel like a full-time gig some days, but Waddle said he’s OK with it because staying busy is of utmost importance for retired law enforcement officers.
“Police officers who retire and don’t have something to do die within five years,” he said. “I was almost 53 when I retired, and I have a lot of years left. I have got to have something to do.
“The last couple of months putting this together felt like a job, but normally it doesn’t since I own the place. I come and go, and I travel a lot – we are going to New Zealand, Australia and the Caribbean this next year. I will never be bored, and that’s the way you keep a retired cop alive.”