Storage Asset Management Inc. (SAM) recently launched We CAN Feed the Hungry food drive. All of SAMs 27 managed self-storage properties will be drop off points for non-perishable donations until Thanksgiving. Each of the properties will be working in conjunction with a local food bank.

14.6 percent of U.S. householdsmore than 49 million Americans, including 16.7 million childrenstruggle to put food on the table, said Alyssa Quill, SAM vice president. We want to help fight hunger these holidays in our local communities, and as our food drive slogan says, open up a can of giving. Holidays should be times of celebration with loved ones, and no one should have to wonder how theyre going to put food on the table.

All participating customers will be offered a rent discount for donated items. Many property managers are also donating their time and use of the facilitys moving truck to collect items. Im really excited about this effort. We have yard signs, flyers and I fed the hungry stickers for those who donate items, said one property manager in Dillsburg, Pa. So far the response has been incredible. Not only have our tenants been donating, but other local businesses and residents have been contributing as well.

Storage Asset Management Inc is a full-service self-storage property-management and consulting company. The company manages 27 self-storage properties in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.

By Scott Brothers

As a self-storage operator, youre called upon to wear many different hats. When your job includes overseeing personnel, sales, marketing, technology, accounting and most everything else, risk management sometimes gets pushed off the table. This can be overwhelming to manage. Perhaps youve considered looking for someone to advise you on the critical issues of running your business. So, who are you going to call?  

The risk-management process includes such things as how to handle a lost supplier, replace a key employee and hundreds of other choices you might be called upon to make during the lifetime of your business. John OConnor, vice president of product and underwriting at Travelers Select Accounts, says a majority of small-business owners spend most of their time on operational riskskeeping the day-to-day operations open and, hopefully, profitable.

Along with backup computer data and other crucial information that should be kept off premises, owners should also keep a list of the following emergency contacts on the premises as well as in a separate location:

• Employees
• Fire
• Police
• Utility companies (water, electric and telephone)

For individuals, be sure to include fixed-location numbers outside home and cell-phone numbers. This way, when utility services are compromised, youll still have the ability to make contact.

Be sure to show your concern for employee family members as well as your employees. In addition to maintaining employee addresses and phone numbers, ask these questions:

• Do you have private transportation?
• Do you carpool or use public transportation?
• Do you have pets?
• Have you made arrangements for someone to care for your pets in the event of a personal or family emergency?
• Does any member of your household have special health needs?
• Do you or any member of your household require critical medications?

Take a moment to review or make a list of at least the information in the table below so you or someone given the responsibility on your behalf can contact the appropriate parties when situations arise.

Emergency Contacts
Contact	Name	Primary Phone Number	Emergency Phone Number	Remarks
Attorney
CPA
Insurance Agent
Equipment Repair
Financial Institution (Bank)
Supplier(s)
Other (Describe)

Equally important, make sure your employees and local authorities know how to contact you in the event an emergency occurs at your business when youre away. Provide them with your business name, location, manager and owners name, business phone, home-phone and cell-phone number. In the event you cannot be reached, you should also provide an alternate contact with the persons name, position, business phone, home and cell phone. Be sure to also include any special instructions during extended periods of time when youll be unavailable.

Plan for the Unexpected

Business-continuity plans are also essential. The threat of your business not reopening after a disaster or failing outright may very well rest upon how well you plan and, more important, how well you implement that plan. Business owners need to prepare for a lot more than just a major disaster such as a hurricane. Youll need a different plan for a fire in your building, if the water main breaks, or if theres a pandemic. Each emergency requires a plan specific to the situation and, in many cases, requires different responses.

According to a recent survey conducted by Travelers during Americas Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C., consumers who are looking for choices and an adviser with critical planning issues most often turn to their attorney (28 percent) and their insurance agent (10 percent). Other options include your CPA, business-association members and others in your same profession. A few of the survey participants said they couldnt rely on anyone, so they conducted their own research via the Internet.

Smart business owners know its important to plan for the unexpected to ensure protection for the future. The old saying, If youre failing to plan, youre planning to fail, easily becomes reality when you dont have adequate insurance coverage and a business continuity plan in place thats ready to implement on a moments notice.

Scott Brothers is president and CEO of Joplin, Mo.-based The Insurancenter. The company has been insuring the car-care industry since 1986, and is a writer of carwash insurance nationwide. For more information, call 800.444.8675; e-mail [email protected] ; visit www.carwashinsurance.com .

Rutland Northeast Storage, an 11,973 net rentable-square-foot self-storage facility in St. Petersburg, Fla., recently sold for just over $1 million. Built in 1974, Rutland Northeast Storage was converted to self-storage in 2003.

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services brokered the sale. Michael A. Mele, vice president investments and senior director of the National Self-Storage Group, along with Adam Wides, investment specialist in the firms Tampa office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the Florida-based seller, a limited liability company. 

Marcus & Millichap also brokered the sale of two other self-storage facilities in the Florida market. Tallahassee Self Storage, a 93,135 net rentable-square-foot self-storage facility in Tallahassee, Fla., sold for $4.2 million. Mele represented the seller, a Florida-based owner/developer and the Texas-based buyer, a limited liability company.

Built in 1988 and renovated in 2006, Tallahassee Self Storage is on 6 acres of land. Amenities include climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled units, digital surveillance and a managers office.

Mele also represented the buyer and seller of Assured Self Storage, an 84,471 net rentable- square-foot self-storage facility in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The property, owned by a national financial institution, sold for $5.3 million to a private equity company. Built in 1998, Assured Self Storage includes five buildings on 4.34 acres of land

With more than 1,200 investment professionals in offices nationwide, Marcus & Millichap is the nations largest firm specializing in commercial real estate investments.

Store America in Marcy, N.Y., was recently sold to a private, first-time self-storage buyer. The 25,200-square-foot facility has 182 units, outside parking space, a 900-square-foot rental office, and 2.5 acres of land for expansion. Built in 2001, it was 81 percent occupied at the time of sale. Total land area is 4.9 acres. The facility is adjacent to the commercial area of North Utica and the Town of Marcy.

John Gilliland of Investment Real Estate LLC represented the buyer and seller in this transaction. IRE provides self-storage brokerage, construction, management and consulting services in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.

Don Valk, owner of Assured Self Storage, purchased a 4.5-acre lot in Arlington, Texas, to build his third Arlington self-storage facility. Located at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 287 and Turner Warnell Road, the land was bought from Bill Rose of Rose Investments. The site offers visibility from the highway, with significant frontage and easy access from both thoroughfares.

Shawn Valk of Assured Realty represented the buyer. Representing the seller were Pete and Andrew Richardson of Henry S. Miller Realty Services LLC. Pete is senior vice president and Andrew is an associate in the companys Dallas-Fort Worth office.

This is Assured's 23rd self-storage complex in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The company plans to build two new facilities annually.

Materials linked to a bomb that appeared on Ohios Interstate 71 in late 2006 were discovered this week at Simply Self Storage in Norwood. A man who won the contents of a delinquent self-storage unit at auction opened it to find books on how to make bombs, wires, batteries and other chemicals.

The unit belonged to David McMullin, who passed away, leaving the storage rent unpaid. The unit went to lien sale and was sold.

On Nov. 29, 2006, a suspicious incendiary device found at Interstate 71 and the Williams Avenue Overpass caused officials to shut down the freeway for eight hours. Analysis of the device has demonstrated a link to Mondays storage-unit discovery.

The original case had grown very cold until this week. Police now say both cases are closed, as there are no other individuals tied to them.

Storage Deluxe secured $36.5 million in refinancing for four of its self-storage properties in Queens and Bronx, N.Y. The refinancing is a 10-year, fixed-rate loan through a national bank.

The portfolio consists of 257,884 net rentable square feet of self-storage space thats approximately 90 percent occupied. Two properties in the portfolio are in Long Island City, Queens, and the other two are in Crotona Park East, Bronx. 

The New York and Pittsburgh offices of HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) arranged the refinancing. HFF director Steven Klein, managing director Claudia Steeb and executive managing director and managing member John Pelusi, Jr. worked exclusively on behalf of Storage Deluxe, a real estate company specializing in the acquisition, development and management of self-storage properties. The company owns, has interests in, and manages 29 facilities containing over three million square feet of storage space.

HFF operates out of 17 offices nationwide and is a provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry. 

  

After a self-storage manager found the remains of a veteran abandoned in a unit at Mini Stor in Citrus Heights, Calif., he embarked on a year-long journey to ensure the ashes are buried.

Jerry Petersen discovered the remains of James Gerald Leach, a retired U.S. Air Force senior master sergeant, in Mini Stors maintenance unit while cleaning. Prior to Petersens employment, the urn had been placed there after the tenants unit was abandoned and sold at auction. It wasnt clear how long the remains had been at the storage facility, but Leachs death had occurred 13 years earlier.

The urn was engraved with the Air Force emblem, leading Petersen, who served in the Army from 1977 to 1989, to look for Leachs family. Unable to contact any, he then turned to the California Department of Veterans Affairs, who put him in contact with Missing in America Project (MIAP), a group that looks for unclaimed remains of veterans and helps facilitate burials.

Since 2006, MIAP has located and identified the remains of 1,024 veterans and interred 855 in state or Department of Veterans Affairs cemeteries, according to MIAP's website.

Petersen, 51, worked with MIAP so Leach could be interred alongside his peers at the Northern California Veterans Cemetery. The ashes are scheduled to be honorably interred Nov. 17. Petersen plans to attend.

Storage Express has acquired a 28,000-square-foot self-storage facility in Effingham, Ill., from Simply Self Storage. The site will be the first in this Central Illinois community to feature high-tech security and other amenities common to the Storage Express portfolio, including a fully automated rental center. Local field-service representatives will manage the property.

Storage Express owns and operates 73 self-storage properties across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. Its headquarters is in Bloomington, Ind. This year the company has opened new locations in Memphis, Ind., and Louisville, Ky.

According to the website at StorageExpress.com, the company developed its business by locating properties in smaller towns and centralizing rentals from its Bloomington office. Current or prospective customers get assistance through an 800 number that feeds into a call center. Administrative functions, such as rent collection, payment posting, general accounting and more, are also centralized in Bloomington.

Field-service reps visit the companys properties once per week to inventory vacant and occupied space, clean vacant spaces, and conduct routine maintenance. Storage Express contracts out services including lawn care, pest control and snow removal.