Westy Self Storage is hosting a donation drive to assist earthquake survivors in Haiti, using its Stamford, Conn., facility as a designated drop-off location for donations. In addition, Westy will provide temporary storage for the donations and deliver them to the Share Joy Foundation, which will coordinate distribution to Haiti. The organizations will be collecting clean blankets, clothes, flashlights, non-perishable food, towels and candles.
 
Share Joy, a non-profit organization based in Ridgefield, Conn., recycles donations from affluent communities for people in greater need.

Westy is open seven days a week. Hours of operation and directions can be found at Westy.com. Founded in 1990, the company has six facilities in Connecticut, three in New Jersey and seven in New York.
 
On Jan. 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, costing the lives of an estimated 50,000 people to date. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless and in need of immediate aid and assistance.
 
Source: NorwalkPlus.com, Westy Self Storage assists Haiti earthquake survivors

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The Hampshire Cos., owner and operator of 16 self-storage facilities throughout New Jersey, New York and Puerto Rico, will change the name of all its sites to Hampshire Self Storage.
 
Based in Morristown, N.J., The Hampshire Cos. is a private real estate investment firm with equity in assets valued at more than $2 billion. Its self-storage facilities comprise 12,187 units and more than 1 million square feet. The company has four additional sites under development in Denville, Hackensack and Hillsborough, N.J., and New Hanover, Va. With more than 20 years of self-storage experience, Hampshire Cos. formerly operated as a Storage USA franchisor.

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City officials and the irrigation district of Harlingen, Texas, are debating over who should clean a drainage ditch next to American Self Storage.

Sandy Garza, one of the self-storage facility’s managers, says the facility operators have been after the city since last May to clean up the ditch. The city, in turn, says it’s the Harlingen Irrigation District’s responsibility to keep the ditch free of grass and muck. The grass on the canal is maintained but the north-south running ditch is not. For now, the city and the Harlingen Irrigation District are discussing the clean up.

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Security Self Storage is contributing to relief efforts for Haiti earthquake victims by donating $5 from each self-storage rental made at one of its 15 facilities between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2010. In addition, donations of cash and goods are being collected at each of the company’s facilities on behalf of the American Red Cross. The cash contributions will be given to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.
 
"Many of our customers, particularly in South Florida, have ties to Haiti, and we hope that our contributions will make a difference toward relief and recovery there,” said Stephen Block, president.
 
With facilities throughout Florida and Maryland, Security Self Storage has a long history of partnering with charitable causes. Recent beneficiaries include Toys for Tots, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Becca's Closet, Shoes for Orphan Souls, Treasure Coast Food Bank, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, Rotary, NCH Healthcare System and the Daily Bread Food Bank.

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American Spectrum Realty Inc., a real estate investment and management company, closed the acquisition of the property-management and asset-management contracts held by Evergreen Realty Group LLC and affiliates, and Evergreen's interest in real estate assets. The purchase price is subject to adjustment after Dec. 31, based on the revenue generated by the property-management and asset-management contracts.

Seventy-four property-management and asset-management contracts were acquired in the transaction, representing 80 separate assets. The interests in real estate acquired, held in each case as tenant in common interests, represent Evergreen's interest in many of the properties associated with the contracts acquired.

The former Evergreen-managed properties consist of more than 5 million square feet of office and industrial properties, 2,934 multi-family units, 12,098 self-storage units consisting of more than 1 million square feet, 3,206 student housing units and nine assisted living facilities. All are now under the management of ASR Management.

American Spectrum Realty Inc. is a real estate investment company that owns 30 offices, industrial and retail properties Arizona, California, Texas and the Midwest.

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This week EuroMiniStorage, the first and the only self-storage facility in Romania, opened in Bucharest. With 1,000 self-storage units on three stories, the project is an €8 million investment. Construction began in August 2008 with the consulting assistance of Shurgard.
 
The Bucharest facility employs card-only access and individual alarm systems, and offers a range of retail products for moving and unit customization. It also offers customers the use of one of its own vehicles to transport goods to the facility. Rental prices are calculated for each stored item, according to Danu Temelie, managing partner for operations in Romania and Hungary.
 
EuroMiniStorage also operates a self-storage facility in Budapest, Hungary. The company plans to open four more facilities in the next three years.

Source: Financiarul.ro, First self-storage warehouse, an 8-million euro investment

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In December, Safe and Secure Automated Self Storage of Coconut Creek, Fla., hosted 400 fourth- and fifth-grade science students for a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility and its patent-pending storage-retrieval technology. Fifteen classes from Tradewinds Elementary in Broward County, Fla., visited the facility to meet Paul Talley, the inventor for Automated Self Storage Systems LLC.
 
Students attended a series of presentations titled “The Technology of Automation and Green Initiatives,” which explained why the facility’s system was invented and how it operates. Students learned how the automation has been instrumental in the LEED Certification process and the facility’s receipt of a Green Building of America Award. The series ties into the school’s technology vision for 2009-2010, which is to use technology as a tool “to enrich curriculum and instruction, and deliver lessons in innovative ways.”
 
The City of Coconut Creek and Publix Super Markets also participated in this first series of educational presentations with green products and information regarding the city’s new Single-Stream Recycling Program.
 
Safe and Secure Automated Self Storage is the first automated facility worldwide to use the Automated Self Storage Systems patent-pending technology. Opened in April 2009, the facility has garnered international interest surrounding its economical and environmental benefits.
 
Based in Delray Beach, Fla., Automated Self Storage Systems has developed, constructed, managed and operated self-storage facilities throughout South Florida and New Jersey for 15 years. It is a subsidiary of The Pugliese Co.

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Public Storage will participate in a US REIT Panel at the UBS Self Storage Real Estate Summit Jan. 20.  The real estate investment trust (REIT) will present at 10:00 a.m. ET, and at 11 a.m. ET on the European Panel. The summit will be available online via webcast on Public Storage’s website until Feb. 3.

Public Storage is a real estate investment trust that owns or operates more than 2,000 self-storage properties.

Source:  TransWorldNews,  Public Storage to Present at UBS Self Storage Summit January 20

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Self-storage industry pioneer Harold Carlton Leslie, 77, passed away on Jan. 15. A funeral mass was held this morning at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Tallahassee, Fla., with interment at Tallahassee Memory Gardens. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Big Bend Hospice, 1723 Mahan Center Blvd., Tallahassee, FL 32308.
 
Harold was born on Oct. 7, 1932, to James and Mattie Simpson Leslie in Macon, Ga., where he lived until moving to Miami, Fla., in 1945. He enlisted in the Coast Guard and was stationed in the Pacific Northwest, seeing duty from Port of Seattle through the Aleutian Islands chain, where he supplied lighthouses and regulated commercial whaling operations.
 
After serving his country, Harold enrolled at the University of Miami, majoring in broadcasting and minoring in business finance. After finishing his degree, he moved back to Macon, where and took a job as a disc jockey and met Winnie Doke, whom he married in June 1957.
 
Harold then took a job managing a mobile-home sales business, through which he eventually owned 150 sales facilities across the United States. When the company closed in the mid-1970s, Harold did business consulting for Dunn & Bradstreet, where he consulted for the Piper Family of Memphis, Tenn.
 
The family hired him to work at Piper Industries, which manufactured farm implements and shell casings. The company also had a subsidiary that produced metal buildings for the then fledgling self-storage industry. His involvement in self-storage grew throughout the ‘80s, and he launched and was president of Leslie Industries, which has developed more than 52 million square feet of self-storage to date.
 
Harold was a charter member of the Self Storage Association, instrumental in its early development. He was also a pioneer in the development of the standing-seam steel roof concept, now the accepted norm for the storage industry.
 
Harold enjoyed traveling, fishing and golf as well as spending time with his grandson and close friends. He is survived by two sons, Gregory C. Leslie and Phillip Glen Leslie, a grandson, Phillip Glen Leslie III, and a sister, Julia Vaughn. Harold was preceded in death by his loving wife, Winnie, and two daughters, Beverly Leslie and Cynthia Leslie Hanley.

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A-1 Self Storage, a self-storage provider in San Diego County, Calif., is supporting the Community Outreach Program offered by Culture of Life Family Services. The program provides prayer and support services for mothers and families in need.

“We are honored to have partnered with Culture of Life Family Services. We understand the difficulties women and families face in crisis situations,” says Brian Caster, president and CEO of Caster Cos, A-1 Self Storage's parent company. “We feel it is important to support our communities with programs that are making a difference.”

Culture of Life Family Services provides integrated health care for women and families in crisis situations. For more information about the program, visit www.colfs.org.

A-1 Self Storage has 17 locations in the greater San Diego County area and more than 40 locations across California. A-1 Self Storage is the self-storage division of the Caster Cos., a third-generation, family-owned company headquartered in Southern California since 1959.

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