Man Arrested at PA Self-Storage After Accepting Marijuana Shipment

Mar 11, 2010

Police arrested a Reading, Pa., man after he was caught receiving and intending to unload a shipment of marijuana into a unit at a self-storage facility in Cumru Township, Pa. Police estimate the shipment to be valued at $300,000.

Billy Robles signed for the delivery Wednesday and told the men delivering the marijuana, who were undercover agents, to unload the 300 pounds of marijuana into a self-storage unit, investigators said. The marijuana was on a pallet and hidden in 29 boxes of ceramic tile and tile grout.

The tractor-trailer was stopped in Texas by authorities, and a warrant was obtained to open the boxes. The boxes were reportedly being shipped from a fictitious Texas company, Lone Star Wholesalers, to R&R Inc., another fictitious company that rented the storage unit, according to the attorney general’s office.

Source: Reading Eagle, Man Arrested After Receiving Tractor-Trailer Shipment of Marijuana Worth About $300,000

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Strategic Storage Trust Buys Self-Storage Facility in Gulf Breeze, FL

Mar 11, 2010

In an all-cash transaction, Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a publicly registered, non-traded real estate investment trust targeting the self-storage market, acquired a 280-unit self-storage facility in Gulf Breeze, Fla., for $1.23 million. The company paid cash for the purchase price and paid an acquisition fee to an advisor of $30,625.

The property located was developed in 2004-2005 and contains approximately 39,750 net rentable square feet on 3.45 acres. It is 12 miles southeast of Pensacola, Fla., near Eglin Air Force Base and the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

Strategic Storage Trust owns three other self-storage facilities in Florida.

"This acquisition is an opportunity to complement our existing nearby facility with the addition of large drive-up units, boat and RV parking and truck rentals," said H. Michael Schwartz, chairman and CEO.

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New Steel-Framed Building System Withstands Earthquake Test

Mar 10, 2010

A newly proposed steel-framed system designed to allow buildings to sway with the motion of earthquakes and then return to their original positions may help avoid lasting damage to buildings in future earthquakes. The system is based on a ground-breaking study, led by researchers from Stanford University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and was successfully tested on the world's largest shake table in Japan last summer.

Principal researchers include Gregory G. Deierlein, director of the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford; Jerome F. Hajjar, professor; and Narbey Khachaturian, faculty scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UIUC. The research team also consisted of students and faculty from both universities and collaborative researchers from Japan.

The American Institute of Steel Construction contributed technical support and funding; Tefft Bridge and Iron, an AISC member, provided steel fabrication for the project; and Infra-Metals, an AISC member, donated a significant amount of materials and financial support for large-scale testing at UIUC.

The Controlled Rocking Frame system is designed with a self-centering steel structure and engineered with replaceable shock diffusers that absorb energy as the building moves laterally and vertically, shielding the rest of the framing from damage. According to an article published by the project team, tests have been very successful. When a two-thirds-scale model of a multi-story building was shaken on top of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake simulator, the only damage recorded in the frame was right where it was supposed to be―in the replaceable fuses.

"In moderate to large earthquakes, today's buildings can sustain significant damage throughout their structural framing systems," explained Hajjar. "While they are designed to accept this damage and not collapse, many structures are permanently damaged after such an event. In extreme cases, they may need to be condemned, even if they were designed to satisfy the building code."

The controlled rocking test results prove the worth of this pioneering performance-based seismic technology, which can make buildings more resilient in earthquake-prone communities, and keep them habitable after earthquakes happen. This project also shows the value and importance of international research collaboration and large-scale design method testing before actual earthquake events occur.

Headquartered in Chicago, AISC is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry.

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Online Lien-Sale Notifications: Whose Onus Is It?

Mar 10, 2010

An editorial in The Oshkosh Northwestern today bemoans the fact that new legislation may allow self-storage lien sales in the state of Wisconsin to be publicized in places other than a print newspaper, including the Internet. Assembly Bill 707 is one of four bills moving through the state legislature that will change Wisconsin’s public-notice laws, and author Peter Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and a director of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, is none too thrilled about it.

Fox, who spent more than 24 years in weekly and daily newspapers and also served a decade in state government, claims the proposed laws “would reverse the historic duty of government to keep citizens informed of what it is doing,” shifting the responsibility of public information from government entities to public citizens. He says people will now need to “track down” information, when it should instead be fed to them; the government has a responsibility to feed it.

The other three bills in question―Senate Bills 276 and 541 and Assembly Bill 546―relate to providing notice for public meetings and the court-ordered sale of personal goods or property to satisfy a judgment. Each, if passed, would eliminate at least one physical posting of a public notice. For self-storage operators, it would relinquish the necessity of publicizing lien sales in a print newspaper more than once. Those sales could alternatively be published online, for example, on the website of the Wisconsin Self Storage Association. Fox refers to this last fact as “incredulous.”

(For those of you who'd like a bit more info regarding AB707, here's a link to a press release that ran earlier this month: Bill Improving Self-Storage Lien Law Makes Progress in Wisconsin.)

Fox's position is that a government website should not serve as a substitute for an established public notice, and "fundamental change" should not be enacted to create convenience for the self-storage facility owner. But what about convenience for the consumer? Does not the Internet create this also? Why should one assume the transition to the Internet for public notices creates hassle and unecessary burden for the general public?

The Fox rebuttal to those questions, based on his editorial, might be that while a website is available to anyone who has a computer, the information it contains is not "pushed out" to the public. He says those sites do not notify anyone. He is assuming, of course, that the website in question doesn't offer an e-mail update or newsletter or other subsription-based option for receiving notifications. In my experience, most websites do offer some sort of information feed to which a user can subscribe.

In addition, newspapers are pushed out only to subscribers, not the public at large. Access to the Web is free, while newspaper subscriptions generally are not. To me, the Internet makes public notices more accessible, not less. This does not even take into consideration the sheer number of people who prefer to get their news online, which is steadily climbing.

So let me hear your thoughts on this. From a storage operator's perspective, the elimination of the newspaper-notice requirement is a real boon, as it eliminates expense. But from your viewpoint as a public citizen, do you feel it's the government's responsibility to provide public notices via various print and physical media, or is the Web sufficient for these things? Does the average citizen have a responsibility to seek out public notices and remain informed?

Those of you who have the option of publicizing lien sales online ... how has this worked for you? Have you had complaints from delinquent customers or auction seekers about the delivery of notification? Post your comments here on the blog or join the discussion over at Self-Storage Talk:

Lien-Sale Notification: Debate About Online

The MIP in the Self-Storage Business: The Facility Manager

Mar 10, 2010

This is going to come as a shock to some owners, district managers and corporate officers: You are not the most important person in your business. That distinction clearly belongs to the facility manager.

There are few businesses as manager-centric as self-storage. In many cases, multi-million dollar assets are in the hands of only one or two people, and their day-to-day success (or lack thereof) falls squarely on the backs of those managers.

For many years, self-storage owners have taken for granted the importance of the site manager. Their operation was “good enough” and “easy enough” that manager quality mattered little. But the easy days are over. No longer can the most important person in the business be given the least amount of consideration.

Storage operators must now employ the highest quality managers and ensure their training and professionalism are superior. Owners can’t expect their new (or old) facilities to magically fill up (and remain so) despite the lack of sales ability in their staff. Today’s managers must take a more active role in facility success.

Embracing Change

A new staffing paradigm exists. The best and brightest operators are rapidly embracing this shift, creating a chasm between themselves and competitors who still have their heads in the sand. Those making these changes have chosen to thrive, not merely survive. What are the thrivers doing that the survivors refuse to do? Here’s a short list.

They get over their egos. True professionals don’t feel they have to be the smartest person in the room. The thrivers are reaching out, looking for better ideas. They don’t have to have all the answers. They clearly recognize that “how it’s always been done” is no longer working and changes have to be made. Thrivers know it takes effort to make changes, and they’re willing to make that endeavor.

They hire different people. Self-storage has become far too competitive and capital-intensive to keep hiring mom-and-pop babysitters. The past staffing model included hiring people with little management experience. But today’s managers must have sales skills. The competitive self-storage landscape dictates that managers know how to effectively answer the phone, turn calls into site visits, and turn visitors into renters.

Ninety percent of prospects looking for storage end up renting. If a manager only rents two or three out of every 10 prospects, they’re losing six or seven to competitors. Marketing to get the phones ringing costs far too much for this to be acceptable.

What does a sales-oriented manager look like? First, he has a personality. If a candidate cannot answer the phone with a smile and engage customers with rapport, you’re risking your business.

He’s also professional and clean-cut, dresses neatly and represents your valuable asset as it should be. Lastly, he’s smart. Your business has several moving parts, and you need someone who understands that. A storage manager must know how to read the management-summary reports and realize the impact of discounts as well as rent increases.

They train their managers. Sadly, many owners spend very little on training their managers. When self-storage was easy, training didn’t seem that important. But our business is not easy anymore. Managers have to be professionally trained on how to sell units and collect rent.

Making the Manager’s Job Easier

Today’s competitive landscape demands that you take a hard look at your operation and facilitate your manager’s sales job. Do you ever step back and take time to see what your customers see? Is your facility tired and worn, or shiny and exciting? Does your operation use horse-and-buggy systems or new technology? These are some areas where you should pay special attention.

Curb appeal. Customers often make a decision about renting based on facility appearance, so ensure your facility is clean and attractive.

Sales office. Your merchandise display should be full and organized, and the counter free of clutter. Restrooms should be clean and odor-free. Make sure camera monitors are working. The manager should have a clean company shirt.

Marketing. Your Yellow Pages ad should be regularly updated. Create a facility website with all working links and clean copy. Consider using a call center to capture unanswered calls. The manager should have business cards printed with his name.

Manager tools. Make sure your operation makes use of facility-specific software that is manager-friendly and includes a revenue-management tool. It’s also important that your facility has a good unit mix, and that your manager has access to the appropriate management reports and forms.

Today’s self-storage owners are struggling to figure out how to survive the economic downturn and turn their operations around. Sadly, most miss the obvious silver bullet: the great facility manager. All the gizmos and gadgets, programs and parties, bells and whistles in the world won’t make a difference if your manager can’t make the sales.

The most important person in your self-storage business, the manager, deserves the utmost consideration. He deserves to be highly trained and have clearly defined priorities. Managers with self-confidence and self-motivation are the keys to self-storage success.

Bob Copper is the owner of Self-Storage 101, a full-service consulting firm specializing in training, market and feasibility studies, and helping owners and managers reach higher and more profitable levels of operational effectiveness. To reach him, call 866.269.1311; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.selfstorage101.com.

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Marcus & Millichap Releases National Self-Storage Report and Market Updates

Mar 09, 2010

Marcus & Millichap Research Services has released its National Self-Storage Report for 2009 as well as Self-Storage Market Updates for the first half of 2010.

The national report provides insights to key regional trends, including changes in occupancy levels, rent adjustments, inventory growth and an assessment of sales dynamics. The newly released “First Half 2010 Self-Storage Market Updates,” offers analyses of key supply/demand drivers for 25 metropolitan markets nationwide. It covers fundamental market-level trends such as occupancies and rents. Observances and predictions outlined in the reports include:

While the recession has hampered self-storage operations nationwide, properties in urban and infill areas generally have fared better than their counterparts in suburban and outlying areas.
The depth of the recession and the expected slow economic recovery will hamper self-storage in 2010, though occupancies appear to be stabilizing in some markets.
Falling construction levels nationwide will mitigate supply-side risks over the next few years.

Marcus & Millichap Research Services is a division of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, a commercial real estate investment services firm. As a service to its clients, Marcus & Millichap provides research reports through the Research Services page of MarcusMillichap.com. Additional information on a particular self-storage market can be had by contacting a local office and speaking with one of the company’s investment specialists.

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