A. Miami Shores Storage (a storage yard).

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. Somewhere in Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. More than once in the fourth season.

When Rita made Dexter get rid of his apartment (after they were married), he had the problem of
figuring out to do with his private stuff: his blood slides, his killing tools, etc.

At first, he tried locking his stuff in a shed in the back yard of his new home.
But when that got damaged in an accident (and threatened to reveal his dark secrets), he decided to move it all into a large, walk-in shipping container in a public storage yard.

We first saw the new storage yard in Episode 10, "Lost Boys", when Dexter went there at night to examine his new room, and look at his killing tools. (He mused that it was appropriate to keep his stuff in a shipping container, since he was "born" in one.)

We saw it again in Episode 11, where Dexter went there to look through Lundy's files about the Trinity Killer (which he had stolen from Lundy's hotel room), to select a murderer to frame as Trinity (and decided on trucker Stan Beaudry).

In Episode 1 of Season 5, "My Bad", following Rita's death, Dexter, planning to run away from life, pours gasoline inside the container and sets everything on fire (except for his tools and blood slides, which he takes with him).

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. The south back lot at Sunset-Gower Studios (plus a glimpse of the strip mall across the street)..

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. This scene was shot right across the street (Fountain Ave) from the same plain, little strip mall that the show has used several times in the past. (They used that strip mall this season for the scene where Nikki spots the headline about her boyfriend having an STD.)

If you look at the Google StreetView below, you'll see what is across the street from that strip mall: the south wall of the Sunset-Gower Studio, where they film Dexter.







They simply built the "storage yard" in the southeast corner of the studio lot, right behind that white wall, the same place where film the police station parking lot scenes, and where they also filmed the scene of Trinity loading cement into his car this season.

In Season 2, the strip mall across the street was used as the exterior of "The Swamp" bar, and as the tailor shop where Dexter picks up his wedding tuxedo in Season 3.

You'll find that strip mall at 6000 Fountain Ave, in Hollywood, CA. That's on the south side of Fountain, just west of Gordon Street.  The studio lot is on the north side of Fountain.



Here is an aerial photo of the strip mall.  And here is a map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  I had a hunch that this was probably just a studio set, and since they build most of their outdoor Dexter sets in this corner of the lot. this was my first guess. So I checked, and was able to verify it.

Take a look at the photo below. Notice the neon lemon-lime patch of color behind the "Storage" sign?



Now take a look at the shot below (from episode 5), and you'll see that same patch of color. The producers painted that color into the normally white front of the strip mall at Fountain & Gower, for that scene with Nikki.


When they shot the view of the storage yard, the paint was still there.



But the evidence doesn't stop there. The block wall seen in that shot also matched the studio wall (except that they painted the normally-gray wall a bright purple for the occasion), as does the large tree just outside the wall (on Fountain Ave), and the chain link & barbed wire on top of the wall.