A resident manager at a SecurCare Self Storage facility in Tulsa, Okla., was assaulted during a burglary early Tuesday morning. The woman, who was shoved during the incident, was taken to a local hospital, according to a source.

Police were called to 9700 E. 11 St. after the manager spotted two men on the facility’s video feed at around 2:40 a.m. She heard them banging on storage-unit doors, police said. It’s unclear from the source how the woman was injured.

A police dog found Johnny Lee Stedman, 44, hiding under a trailer. He was arrested on charges of second-degree burglary and resisting arrest. The second suspect escaped before police arrived, a source reported.

SecurCare is a participating regional operator of National Storage Affiliates Trust, a self-administered and -managed real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition, operation and ownership of self-storage properties. The company operates more than 100 facilities in 14 states.

Sources:
KRMG, Storage Unit Employee Injured During Burglary
KRMG, Woman Assaulted During Burglary in East Tulsa

Rockford Self Storage, which operates four facilities in Rockford, Mich., is expanding two of its locations.

A new building designed for vehicle storage will be available this month at 10511 Northland Drive N.E. The units will range from 5-by-10 to 10-by-30, according to the source.

Two new self-storage buildings will be added next spring to 4700 Courtland Point N.E. One will be climate-controlled, while the other will contain drive-up units.

Rockford Self Storage was founded in 1992. Its facilities feature access-controlled entry, with gates that can be opened via a smartphone or Apple watch, as well as active security cameras, security lighting, business storage, retail centers and more.

Virginia Varsity Storage Inc. plans to convert the historic Graves-Humphreys Hardware Co. Inc. site in Roanoke, Va., into a mixed-use property that will include self-storage, office space and residential units. It’ll be the company’s sixth project in the state, according to a press release.

The 2.2-acre parcel at 1948 Franklin Road S.W. contains five buildings and is home to about a dozen business tenants. Constructed in the 1960s, the existing structures were originally targeted for self-storage, but the plan was expanded due to its proximity to River's Edge Sports Complex and a greenway system.

“We have a contract on it, and it's going to end up being a little more interesting and exciting than we originally thought,” said John Lugar, president and founder of Virginia Varsity.

Two of the buildings will be demolished to improve parking and access to the site, while the remaining structures will be refurbished. A new building adjacent to the sports complex will include four stories of self-storage, with 60 apartments wrapped around it on two sides, the source reported.

Lugar plans to work with the existing tenants and incorporate them into the new design. He also said he hopes to bring a modern property to the neighborhood similar to one found in upscale communities. The renovations and new construction are expected to begin early next year.

Lugar also addressed past flooding at the site. The new building will be constructed out of the flood plain with parking on the ground floor, the source reported.

Graves-Humphreys was a distributor of agricultural items, glass, hardware, oils, paints and tools. The company also provided sporting equipment and team uniforms to local youth. A portion of the building near the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks previously served as a manufacturing plant for Roanoke Ice & Cold Storage Warehouse.

Headquartered in Salem, Va., Virginia Varsity Storage is a part of Virginia Varsity Transfer & Self Storage, which was founded in 1988 by Lugar as a moving company. In addition to providing moving services, it operates five storage facilities in Christiansburg, Roanoke and Salem, Va.

Source: WDBJ, Mixed-Use Development Planned for Graves-Humphreys Property in Roanoke

To set a marketing budget for your self-storage operation, you must have a plan of action for your marketing efforts. If not, you’ll waste valuable resources on strategies that bring little to no results.

The overarching goal of marketing should be to ensure potential customers know your brand. The better your brand visibility, the more likely prospects will think of you when the need for storage arises. This can be particularly true if you’ve created and promoted alliances with local organizations and businesses. You want to become a trusted community resource, emphasizing your position with frequent testimonials and networking.

To get the whole neighborhood talking about your store, you need to leverage referrals, engage social media, participate in community organizations, visit local businesses, host onsite events, and post online reviews. Your outreach should include e-mail campaigns, direct mail and many other methods to increase your contact database. All these efforts tax your resources in different ways and require thoughtful planning and measurement.

To understand how all the pieces of a marketing budget work together, let’s do a little reverse engineering, using a benchmark example from my property-management company.

Setting Goals

My firm uses an in-house “Personal Marketing Goals” (PMG) form for each facility in its management portfolio. It’s a one-page worksheet on which we list the goals for each marketing activity and then measure performance against them. PMGs are completed at the end of the year, coinciding with overall budget planning.

In 2017, our teams sent an average of 35,234 marketing messages per store through outgoing calls, e-mails, weekly visits to local businesses, onsite events, social media posts, club meetings, expos and other off-site networking. Our facility managers made more than 23,000 visits to local businesses. Nearly 41,000 visitors attended events at our properties; that’s more than 1,000 visitors per store for the year!

All these touchpoints help a self-storage operation gain visibility and build reputation, which should result in unit rentals. A good way to determine their effectiveness is to calculate your average cost per lease (CPL) by dividing all advertising costs by the total number of new leases. In 2017, our CPL was $65.74.

Creating Guidelines

To get to a set of budget guidelines, let’s drill down at what my company spent on marketing in relation to other expenses. The following table shows a decade of expenses expressed as dollars per square foot. Marketing costs are represented in the “Advertising” line. This includes all our efforts, from promotional items to candy giveaways.

In 2017, our marketing expenses were 25 cents per square foot. Our facilities average 60,000 net rentable square feet, so if your property is smaller, this number will be larger. Conversely, if you operate a much larger facility, your cost per square foot will likely be less.

We also measure expenses as a percentage of income to help spot trends. The following table illustrates how technology has helped us lower marketing and advertising costs and achieve a greater return on investment. In 2007, our marketing expenses comprised nearly 4 percent of actual income; 10 years later, they dropped to 2.2 percent. (Keep in mind that a property in lease-up will require different expenses entirely, but once it stabilizes, the percentages should fall similarly to this example.)

Marketing Expenses

For budgeting purposes, we break marketing expenses into nine categories:

• Advertising: Expenses tied to producing fliers as well as local printing/promotions managers may want to conduct
• Advertising printing: Referral cards, business cards, rack cards and pull-up banners
• Donations: Contributions to charities and fundraisers
• E-mail marketing: Expenses tied to our e-mail platform
• Events: Expenses for participating in or hosting events, including ribbon-cuttings, yard sales, chamber expos, etc.
• Internet marketing: Costs associated with pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, online aggregators, search engine optimization and search engine marketing
• Memberships and dues: Costs for affiliation with professional and community organizations
• Promotion: Costs associated with promotional items we hand out during visits to local businesses as well as onsite event giveaways, catering and refreshments
• Referral fees: Money paid to those who refer new move-ins

In the following example, we’ve allotted $1,310 per month for all these items. Since we place our emphasis on outreach, our three largest costs are referral fees, promotion and Internet marketing. These comprise nearly 90 percent of our monthly marketing output, with Internet marketing alone consuming 61 percent of the budget.

Keep in mind these figures will differ between a new facility and an average, stabilized location. In the following example, you can see a progression during lease-up in which marketing should require a lower percentage of income despite an anticipated, annual escalation in associated expenses from the first to fifth years.

Measure and Study

List any marketing and advertising expenses in your management software. For example, if you’re a member of your local chamber of commerce, make sure that’s listed. Similarly, track performance across all channels to gauge effectiveness.

This includes surveying new customers at move-in. It’s critical to confirm how a new tenant found out about you. Ensure your managers are using a marketing questionnaire at move-in and registering responses. The results will help you figure out what’s working and how to adjust and allocate marketing dollars for future budgets.

The following table shows how our teams measured sources of customer traffic last year. At just .01 percent, it’s apparent the Yellow Pages is no longer a valid source of acquisition for us. On the other hand, with nearly 34 percent of new tenants citing the Internet as their point of contact, we must have an adequate budget for our business website, online aggregators, PPC campaigns, social media ads and e-mail marketing.

 

Engaging your customers and community members is critical to being top-of-mind. By planning your marketing and then working and measuring that plan, you’ll be able to adjust your annual budget with confidence, knowing all your touchpoints are working toward your bottom line.

M. Anne Ballard is president of training, marketing and developmental services for Universal Storage Group and the founder of Universal Management Co. She’s past president of the Georgia Self Storage Association and has served on the national Self Storage Association’s board of directors. She’s also participated in the planning, design and operation of numerous storage facilities. For more information, call 770.801.1888; visit www.universalstoragegroup.com. 

Jeffery Hanley, owner of Blue Ice Self Storage in Pittson, Maine, is seeking a third term as a state representative. The Republican represents House District 87, covering Alna, Pittson, Randolph and Wiscasset. He’s been endorsed by the Maine Realtors Association and the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, according to the source.

Hanley, who sits on the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, is seeking re-election because he enjoys the position and believes “the state of Maine is on the edge of doing everything right,” he told the source.

Hanley’s platforms include fiscal responsibility and controlled spending. He believes the legislature should “create a business-friendly climate,” including taking a conservative approach to the minimum wage. He’s also in favor of eliminating income tax, which he believes would entice more business owners to the state.

In addition to serving as a state rep, Hanley is a grand knight with the Knights of Columbus and volunteers with the Chrysalis Place/Gardiner Food Bank.

A native of Gardiner, Maine, Hanley is semi-retired. He’s spent the last 24 years in Pittson, a town of around 3,000 people about eight miles south of the state capital. In his career, he’s worked as an electrician, pipefitter and welder. He served six years in the Maine National Guard and has been married to his wife, Sally, for 47 years. The couple has four children and nine grandchildren, the source reported.

Source:
The Lincoln County News, Wiscasset-Area Legislator Seeks Third Term

The Louisiana Department of Insurance (LDI) has issued cease-and-desist orders to stop self-storage operators from offering tenant-protection plans to customers. The LDI contends the plans are insurance products that should be sold under a license, according the national Self Storage Association (SSA), which shared the information in an Oct. 1 newsletter to members.

“The orders are inconsistent with court decisions in California and Kentucky that ruled in favor of tenant-protection plans and held that they are not insurance,” SSA officials said. “It is expected that the orders will be appealed. The orders do not affect facilities licensed by the [LDI] to sell tenant insurance.”

The Supreme Court of California ruled unanimously in April that self-storage tenant-protection plans don’t constitute insurance. In the court’s opinion, a self-storage operator that offers tenant protection “assumes risks that arise directly from the rental relationship, and it does not provide indemnification beyond damages that might occur to property while it is stored in the rented space. Therefore, the protection plan has no purpose independent of the rental agreement, and is purely incidental to the rental agreement.”

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled similarly on a 2014 case, reversing a superior-court judgment that customer-protection plans are insurance.

No timeline was mentioned on when appeals against the LDI cease-and-desist orders might be filed.

Source:
The Monday Morning Globe 10/1/18, Cease-and-Desist Order Issued Against Louisiana Protection Plans

Phoenix-based U-Haul International Inc., which operates more than 1,500 self-storage facilities across North America and frequently recycles existing structures for its new locations, is converting a former Coca-Cola Bottling Co. distribution plant to self-storage in Waukee, Iowa. The facility at 16200 E. Hickman Road opened a temporary showroom in January, offering moving and packing supplies, truck and trailer rentals, and U-Box portable-storage containers, according to a press release.

Once the renovations are complete, the 69,600-square-foot warehouse will contain 900 interior storage units. The facility will also offer a U-Haul Re-Use center for the sharing of boxes and gently used household items.

“Waukee is growing,” said Randy Dickson, president of the U-Haul Co. of Iowa. “We're here to meet the demand for high-quality moving and self-storage services in Waukee neighborhoods.”

U-Haul also opened a conversion project last month in Superior, Wis., that comprises 88,914 square feet of storage space in more than 700 interior units.

Established in 1945, U-Haul owns more than 55 million square feet of storage space. The company’s corporate sustainability initiatives, which support infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint, has led to dozens of conversion projects in recent years.

Source:
Markets Insider, New U-Haul Facility to Address Self-Storage Demand in Waukee

With Halloween just around the corner, many self-storage operators are thinking about ways they can observe the spooky holiday while promoting their business. One great community-marketing option is to host a “trunk-or-treat” event. This alternative to trick-or-treating takes place right in your facility parking lot, with participants giving out candy or other goodies from the backs of their cars, which are decorated for the occasion. It’s a safe, organized way to help your neighbors celebrate, and it can even be co-sponsored by local schools, churches or other businesses.

In a recent thread on Self-Storage Talk, the industry’s largest online community, members are discussing their experiences with this type of event. Read what they have to say and get fresh ideas for your own fall marketing!

Update 10/2/18 – Last week the village board approved Big Door’s request to build its condo self-storage project in Mundelein. The special-use permit was issued on Sept. 24 without debate, as the board had previously discussed the proposal earlier in the month and in May, a source reported.

The facility is expected to open in summer 2019.

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9/13/18 – Mundelein trustees unanimously agreed on Monday to have village staff write a special-use permit for the condo self-storage facility proposed by Big Door. The permit will include noise limitations between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and require the developer to erect a fence along the southern boundary of the property to serve as a buffer from neighboring residences, according to the source.

Plans now call for 35 total units ranging from 560 to 1,500 square feet, with prices starting at $131,600. Construction is expected to take 10 months, with completion planned for next summer, the source reported.

Mayor Steve Lentz believes the condo concept is a good one for Mundelein due to a series of “Park on Park” car shows the city hosts during the summer. "Classic cars and Mundelein go hand in hand, and owners need a nice place to store them along with other vehicles," Lentz said. "We are happy to welcome this to Mundelein."

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5/21/18 – Denver-based Big Door Holdings is looking to build condominium self-storage on a 2-acre vacant lot on Wilhelm Road in Mundelein, Ill. Principal Dave Miller presented the company’s plans for Industrial Flex Condominiums to the village board on May 14. The units will be designed for the storage of classic cars, boats and RVs, but can also be converted to art studios, or hobby, leisure or office space, according to the source.

The property would include three buildings comprising 38,000 square feet of space in 30 to 40 units, Miller said. Sold individually, the units would range from 500 square feet to 2,500 square feet, featuring climate control, electricity, Internet connectivity, water and other amenities. The condos would cost $80,000 to more than $200,000, said John Victor, a Big Door representative. Each would generate an annual property tax for the village.

The land is zoned for general manufacturing and would require a zoning variation, according to Amanda Orenchuk, community-development director. While the trustees didn’t take action on the proposal, they voiced concerns about the condos’ usage. Trustee Dawn Abernathy said she liked the concept, but worried people would use the space for parties. Another trustee, Bill Rekus, brought up the possibility of people living in the units or using them as an auto-repair shop. Despite their concerns, the board informally supported the project, the source reported.

Founded in 2017, Big Door is opening a similar facility in Chicago this spring.

Sources:
Daily Herald, Unusual Storage Facility Likely Coming to Mundelein
Daily Herald, Storage Facility Proposed for Mundelein's South Side
Daily Herald, Self-Storage Facility Plan Approved in Mundelein