Morningstar Properties LLC, which operates self-storage facilities under the Morningstar Mini-Storage brand, has acquired a facility in Spring Hill, a suburb of Nashville, Tenn., for $9.1 million, or about $102 per square foot. The property is along a commercial corridor, adjacent to a Publix Supermarket and Walmart Supercenter and near other big-box retailers.
Built in 2008 and expanded in 2015, the facility consists of seven single-story buildings comprising 89,388 net rentable square feet of storage space in 576 units. Property amenities include electronic gate access, enclosed vehicle storage and video cameras. It also has a three-bedroom, one-bath manager’s apartment.
The buyer and the seller, a local developer, were represented in the transaction by Charles “Chico” LeClaire, senior vice president of investments, and Adam Schlosser, vice president of investments, in the Denver office of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap. The deal was considered unique because the seller recently completed but had yet to begin leasing a 30,400-square-foot expansion with a large climate-controlled component, something that’s in short supply in the submarket, according to a Marcus & Millichap press release.
“This was a great opportunity for the buyer, who has a well-respected management company, to finish leasing the existing facility and grow value by leasing the newly built expansion in a timely fashion,” LeClaire said. “The seller will move on to his many other projects including restaurants, new-home construction and other commercial endeavors while still working on additional self-storage development sites.”
Founded in North Carolina in 1981, Morningstar Properties is a vertically integrated developer, operator and owner of real estate products focused primarily on self-storage and marinas in the Southeast. The company has acquired, developed and operated more than 135 self-storage projects across the country, totaling more than 10 million square feet. It currently owns and operates 38 self-storage centers in nine states, with most concentrated in the South.
Marcus & Millichap is a commercial-property investment firm with more than 1,600 investment professionals in offices throughout the United States and Canada. The company closed more than 8,700 transactions in 2015 with a value of approximately $37.8 billion.
