Self-storage industry veteran Steven Osgood, former president and chief financial officer of U-Store-It Trust (now CubeSmart), has formed All Stor Storage LLC to invest in self-storage properties. The company is seeking to acquire self-storage properties and portfolios throughout the United States.

The partnership includes Tedd Towsley, former treasurer and controller for U-Store-It; Joseph Fong, a private equity and real estate investment professional; and McCombs Partners, the investment-management division of McCombs Enterprises. Together the team has more than 60 years of real estate experience, including more than 40 years in the acquisition, management and financing of self-storage assets, according to a press release.

In his position at U-Store-It, a publicly traded self-storage real estate investment trust, Osgood presided over the acquisition and management of 370 properties with an aggregate acquisition cost of approximately $1.5 billion. He now serves as CEO of All Stor.

Fong previously worked at Fortress Investment Group and Lehman Brothers, and collaborated with Osgood and Towsley on multiple transactions, including U-Store-Its initial public offering.

McCombs Partners provides investment capital and advisory services to investors in private technology, consumer and industrial businesses. The company's core focus is assisting emerging growth companies with mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and providing restructuring services.

We are very pleased to be partnering with McCombs, which has a great track record of investing in and supporting the growth of many companies," said Osgood. "We look forward to deploying capital selectively on acquisition opportunities throughout the year.

Canadian self-storage operator StorageVault Canada Inc. has purchased Airport Road Self Storage in London, Ontario, Canada, for $2.6 million. The acquisition was announced in January and closed in March. It had been contingent to final inspections, financing and approval from the companys board of directors.

The facility has approximately 50,000 square feet of rentable space and outdoor vehicle storage. Company officials said they will also operate a PUPS portable-storage business in conjunction with the property.

StorageVault owns several Canadian self-storage facilities, many in conjunction with a PUPS portable-storage franchise. The company operates a standalone Canadian PUPS facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It also manages five self-storage facilities in southern Ontario.

Real estate investment trust Sovran Self Storage Inc. has purchased 14 facilities in four states for $83 million. The properties were acquired in six separate transactions and funded through credit advances. Each of the facilities will be rebranded as Uncle Bobs Self Storage.

Six of the properties are in Chicago, four are in Southwest Florida, three in Austin, Texas, and one in Phoenix. The facilities add 960,000 square feet to Sovrans portfolio, and all are in markets currently served by Uncle Bobs.

We had a very busy December closing these transactions, and we are thrilled to bring 14 additional high-quality stores in our fold, said David Rogers, CEO. Were especially pleased to have increased our scale and visibility in the Chicago market.

Sovran purchased 28 self-storage properties in 2012 for $190 million.

The company also signed two third-party management contracts in December with two unaffiliated properties. Sovran added 17 facilities in 2012 under its Uncle Bobs Management platform.

Sovran operates 462 properties in 25 states.

A private investment firm continued its bid Monday to convince a planning board in Westford, Mass., to approve the development of a single-story self-storage facility. Cathartes Private Investments (CPI), a Boston-based real estate and energy development firm, presented the development plan to the planning board for the first time in November. Since then, the discussion has been postponed three times, once by the board and twice by CPI. During Mondays meeting CPI representatives offered a revised site plan to satisfy concerns expressed during the review process.  

Attorney Doug Deschenes, a partner with Deschenes & Farrell, P.C., and Andrea Tavares, a civil engineer with Land Tech Consultants, represented CPI. 

The proposed development will be located on Commerce Way off Groton Road near Westford Solar Park and the ACE Hardware Plaza. The facility will encompass 72,800 square feet of storage and 570 units in seven single-story buildings. One of the buildings will include a 600-square-foot office for customers. An existing 14,000-square-foot office building will be demolished.

The proposed development also includes reconstruction of the intersection of Commerce Way and Groton Road and roughly 1,100 linear feet of Commerce Way leading up to the facility. The board had previously expressed concerns about increased traffic at the site. Deschenes assured them during Mondays meeting that traffic to the facility would be minimal and more frequent on weekends. However, vice chairman Mike Green requested that CPI provide a detailed summary of the current onsite traffic conditions and predict traffic the facility might generate. The vote was continued to Feb. 4.

SelfStorageFinders.com, an online facility directory, has launched a guide to help self-storage operators with Internet marketing through search engine optimization (SEO). Built as a section of the companys website, the SEO Guide for Self-Storage Operators is designed to help owners learn how to increase their business website visibility and analyze their SEO efforts.

More and more advertising and marketing dollars are being shifted from traditional forms of advertising to Internet advertising, but some storage owners still dont understand what they are spending their money on, said Brian Barwig, marketing executive. We are trying to put the myths to rest, get the facts out there, inform owners how to go about SEO the correct way, and put it all in one place so it is easy to find and comprehend.

The online guide can be accessed for free.

SelfStorageFinders.com helps consumers find self-storage options by providing location and contact information for more than 5,000 facilities nationwide. Self-storage owners can list facilities for free but pay on a cost-per-reservation model.

Liedkie Moving & Storage is planning to build a $2.5 million self-storage facility in Guilderland, N.Y. The 45,000-square-foot facility will be constructed in two phases and be branded as A Metro Self Storage.

Phase one of the project calls for about 200 storage units comprising 25,000 square feet, 10,000 of which will be climate-controlled. It also includes 30 units for vehicle storage. This portion of the project, scheduled to be completed by March, will cost about $1.6 million and is financed through First National Bank of Scotia.

Phase two will add the remaining 20,000 square feet and is scheduled to begin during spring 2014. The facility is being built on 10 acres of former farmland.

Owner Rick Ramsey currently operates two self-storage facilities comprising 80,000 square feet in Burnt Hills and Rotterdam, N.Y. Liedkie Moving & Storage is based in Rotterdam.

Ramsey picked Guilderland as a desirable location in part because of growing storage demand due to increasing home ownership in the area, he said.

Founded in 1917, Liedkie specializes in local, statewide and long-distance moving services, as well as warehouse storage and self-storage. Ramsey has owned Liedkie for 25 years.

Inside Self-Storage (ISS) has released a series of five instructional Guidebooks for 2013 focusing on self-storage ownership, management, building/investing, marketing and technology. The digital publications are available on demand individually or in a discounted bundle at the ISS Store (www.insideselfstoragestore.com).

Created for self-storage owners, managers and investors, the Guidebook Series includes:

• Building/Investing Guidebook 2013: Designed for those who want to invest in self-storage or who are serious about establishing or expanding an operation. Covers real estate, finance, development and construction.
• Facility-Management Guidebook 2013: Helps to define the duties of a self-storage manager and provides insight to several key job areas including sales, service, money management, maintenance, legal risks and more.
• Marketing Guidebook 2013: Provides a substantial overview of the marketing techniques available to self-storage operators and insight to help you determine which strategies might work best for your particular business.
• Ownership Guidebook 2013: Provides guidance to help single- and multi-facility owners take control of and maximize their investment, covering everything from money management to liability and much more.
• Technology Guidebook 2013: Helps you understand the technology available for your self-storage business, how to leverage it to your advantage, and common pitfalls to avoid.

At $109, the complete package provides a 25 percent savings over the cost of buying the five books individually. Details can be found at www.insideselfstoragestore.com. Choose "ISS Guidebooks" from the left-hand menu.

The ISS Store, an e-commerce website that provides on-demand insight and education for the self-storage industry, is owned and operated by Inside Self-Storage (ISS), a dynamic services provider that has served the industry for more than 20 years. The brand includes ISS magazine, the ISS Expo, the Self-Storage Training Institute and Self-Storage Talk, the industrys largest online community.

Self-storage was among the top-performing market sectors of all U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) in 2012 but dropped from the leading position it held in 2011, according to results released by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). The sector posted a 19.94 percent total return last year, down from 35.22 the year prior.

The four publicly traded U.S. self-storage REITs are CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage Inc., Public Storage Inc. and Sovran Self Storage Inc.

By comparison, the Timber sector lead all REITs in 2012 with a 37.05 percent total return, followed by Industrial (31.28 percent), Infrastructure (29.91) and Retail (26.74).

Self-storage posted a total return of 3.87 percent in December, ranking seventh out of the 19 markets tracked by NAREIT. Industrial posted the top return of 7.1 percent during the period, followed by the Lodging/Resorts (6.68 percent) and Diversified (5.95 percent) sectors.

Taken as a whole, U.S. REIT stocks outperformed the broader equity market for the fourth consecutive year, according to NAREIT. The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, which includes both equity and mortgage REITs, delivered a 20.14 percent total return for the year, and the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index returned 19.70 percent compared to the S&P 500s 16 percent gain.

FTSE is an independent company owned jointly by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. The Index Series presents investors with a comprehensive family of real estate investment trust performance indexes spanning the commercial real estate space across the U.S. economy, offering exposure to all investment and property sectors.

NAREIT is the representative voice for REITs and publicly traded real estate companies.

Self-storage operator Casey Real Estate Investment LLC recently acquired a self-storage facility in Worcester, Mass. The store at 19 McKeon Road  will operate under the brand name Casey Storage Solutions and be managed by Casey Property Management LLC. United Bank in West Springfield, Mass., provided debt financing for the acquisition.

"We are very excited to add the self-storage facility to our portfolio. The acquisition is very complimentary to our growing New England self-storage portfolio, said Morgan Hanlon, founder and managing member of both Casey companies.

The acquisition brings the companys holdings to a total of nine self-storage properties consisting of more than 490,000 square feet and 3,750 self-storage units. Casey Storage Solutions operates properties in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The company currently operates three facilities in central Massachusetts in the cities of Auburn, Sturbridge and Webster.

Casey Real Estate Investment is a real estate investment company that acquires, owns and operates commercial real estate, primarily in the self-storage sector.