H. Michael Schwartz, chairman and CEO of SmartStop Asset Management LLC, a diversified real estate company that manages 89 self-storage facilities in Canada and the United States, participated in a panel discussion today on acquisition trends during the second annual Storage Symposium sponsored by Evercore ISI, a global, investment-banking advisory firm that provides fundamental, macroeconomic and policy research to investors.
The event was held at 666 5th Ave. in New York City. Schwartz presented as part of a session titled "Where Are the Best Opportunities Today?" at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Schwartz founded SmartStop Self Storage Inc. under the Strategic Storage Trust Inc. umbrella in 2007. The executive negotiated its sale to self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT) Extra Space Storage Inc. last year for $1.4 billion. During the last 15 years, he has been involved in more than $3 billion in industrial, office, retail and self-storage property transactions, according to a press release. He has more than 25 years of experience in corporate financial management, real estate and securities.
The SmartStop Asset Management portfolio includes 6.7 million rentable square feet of self-storage space in approximately 59,400 units. The company is the sponsor of Strategic Storage Growth Trust Inc., a public, non-traded REIT focused on self-storage acquisition and development, and Strategic Storage Trust II Inc., a public non-traded REIT that focuses on stabilized self-storage properties.
Evercore focuses its real estate research on the largest REITs across several different sectors including industrial, lodging, multi-family, office, retail and self-storage. It has 28 offices in Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
