Family Farm Grows Into Thriving Storage Facility

Brian Haskins, owner of , is a hometown boy who went to Northwest High School. He left the area for a few years, moving all the way out to Ballwin after he married his wife Becky. But he still had fond memories of the farm he grew up next to in High Ridge back in the 1960s.

“I used to sneak over there and hunt squirrels and rabbits,” he said. He never dreamed that he would one day buy the farm, but in 1991 he did.

He and his family kept a few horses, cows and chickens on the farm and grew pumpkins as a fundraiser for his kid’s baseball team.

The idea to start a storage facility came about by accident. He was in a different line of work at the time—landscaping. But by 2001, he was letting a few neighbors use extra space on the farm to store boats and trailers. That’s when he decided he could easily make money off the service by opening up to the public.

He sold the horses and cows and converted 13 acres of pasture into Antire-44 Haskins Storage. He started with a 15,000-square foot storage building and kept building more units every year. Now Haskins serves 575 tenants with 35,000 square feet of indoor storage and 400 parking spaces for boats and campers. He said he has one of the largest boat and RV parking facilities in the Midwest.

Haskins said his landscaping business had been hit hard by the recession, because his main business came from landscaping new homes.

“When the builders dried up, we slowly moved to just storage,” Haskins said. He said he feels lucky that he already had the storage business established so he could just shift gears and ride out the bad economy.

Haskins’ wife and one of his sons works with him at Antire-44. His son lives in the home they built in center of the storage yard, which adds another layer of security to the facility.

He and his wife live on the remainder of the farm where they still have the chickens and an old log cabin he believes dates back to the 1860s.

Haskins likes to give back to his community and serves on the Northwest School Board.

“It's an honor to serve nearly 7,000 children,” he said. He also serves on the High Ridge Fire Protection District's Board of Directors, the Northwest Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. Haskins said he’s happy working for his community and doesn’t plan to run for any higher office.

His favorite hobby is cheering on his daughter Sarah Haskins, who is an Olympic triathlete. He painted the roof of his barn in her honor when she qualified for the Beijing Olympics and hopes to add another banner if she makes the London Olympics next year.