U-Store-It Trust, a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust focused on self-storage facilities and storage solutions, released the results of its investment activity for the fourth quarter of 2010 and full year. The company invested approximately $87.1 million in 12 self-storage facilities containing 741,000 net rentable square feet.
During the fourth quarter of 2010, U-Store-It acquired nine self-storage facilities for a total investment of approximately $53.9 million. The facilities contain 542,000 net rentable square feet and are located in the company's targeted markets of Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and other northeast state. In addition, as of Dec. 31, the U-Store-It had one facility in northern Virginia under contract to acquire. This acquisition is expected to close in January.
Rounding out the 2010 investment activity, U-Store-It acquired three self-storage facilities during the third quarter of 2010 in Brooklyn and Bronx, N.Y., and in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, containing an aggregate 199,000 net rentable square feet for an investment of approximately $33.2 million.
During the fourth quarter, U-Store-It sold 16 unencumbered assets containing 848,000 square feet for proceeds of approximately $38 million. Fourteen of the disposition assets were in California's Inland Empire. Two of the assets were in Fayetteville, N.C.
U-Store-It funded the $87.1 million for the acquisitions through a combination of $48.4 million raised in 2010 through the use of our At-The-Market equity program, $38.0 million of disposition proceeds, and $0.7 million of available free cash-flow.
"Our 2010 acquisitions have increased our presence in the highly desirable northeast self-storage markets of greater Boston, the boroughs of New York City, and the Washington, D.C. suburbs, said Christopher Marr, president and chief investment officer. "We are successfully executing our strategy of reducing our exposure in slower growth, lower barrier-to-entry markets and recycling that capital into identified core markets where we may be underexposed."
Based in Wayne, Pa., U-Store-It owns or manages 456 facilities across the United States and operates the U-Store-It Network, which consists of approximately 718 additional self-storage facilities.
