21st Century Storage has affiliated with Budget Truck Rental to offer truck rentals at five of its self-storage locations. Budget trucks are being offered for local or one-way moves at the company’s facilities in Baltimore, Md., Marmora, N.J., Pennsauken, N.J., Philadelphia, and Sacramento, Calif.
 
21st Century Storage also offers amenities such as USPS shipping, customer-protection plans, boxes and packing supplies, and online payments and reservations. The company has additional locations in Jefferson City, Mo., and Kearny, N.J.

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21st Century Storage has added three new general managers to its team. Alicia Gillus will run a 750-unit facility in Baltimore. She will live on site. Lia Continisio will manage a 500-unit facility in Marmora, N.J. Marlene Corpus, also a resident manager, will run a 450-unit facility in Sacramento, Calif. She was formerly a general manager at Store Safe in Reno, Nev.
 
All three managers have completed 21st Century Storage University, an intensive onsite and classroom training experience unique to the company. Their major responsibilities will include sales and rentals, accounts receivable and collections, facility upkeep, direct marketing, staff management, and a commitment to increasing profitability at their location.

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Senators in North Carolina last week revealed a list of new sources for sales-tax revenue that includes self-storage. The new tax is being proposed to fill a budget shortfall of approximately $6 billion, and senators claim the state’s taxes will be fairer as a result. Other services being considered for taxation are home repair, amusement parks, spa treatments, dog grooming and tattoos.
 
The plan, still under construction, prescribes an overhaul of how the state’s services are financed. The sales-tax rate in most areas would drop from 6.75 percent to 6 percent, but would immediately be tacked on to many previously untaxed services. In addition to the aforementioned services, sales tax would be charged on product warranties, online software and Web databases. The proposal would raise $1.2 billion over the next two years.
 
Services to be left untouched include medical, legal, accounting and tax preparation, because those are services commonly purchased by businesses. Haircuts will remain untaxed, as the bulk of those transactions are paid in cash.
 
The plan would also affect income-tax rates. 
 
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times, Senate targets taxation of services for more revenue

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The results of the second-quarter 2009 Self-Storage Confidence Index (SSCI) survey have been released by MiniCo Publishing. This quarter’s survey reveals the impact of the economic downturn on self-storage, according to MiniCo Publisher Poppy Behrens. Respondents of previous surveys expected to see income decreases in the first quarter of the year; those decreases have been realized, along with declines in rental and occupancy rates, Behrens said. In addition, this quarter’s respondents expect to see lower income, greater use of concessions and a continuing decline in the national economy in the third quarter.
 
An initiative of MiniCo, The Parham Group and Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the index is designed to anticipate the effects of economic conditions and trends on self-storage operations. The quarterly survey records the next-quarter expectations of U.S. and Canadian self-storage business professionals in the areas of sales, profit, hiring, expenditures and industry economic outlook.

SSCI survey results are available at www.selfstorageconfidenceindex.com.

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Development in North Arlington, N.J., has been slow since 2007, but some projects that were planned before that time will move forward, albeit at a slower pace. A year ago, Self Storage Specialists appealed to the local zoning board to redevelop a former Spring Air mattress factory that has been an eyesore for many years. While the board gave the company the go ahead, no work has been done at the property yet.
 
Planning board attorney Charles Sarlo said the project was held up for economic reasons, and Mayor Peter Massa speculated that the project could be a victim of the financial crisis. Armen McOmber, the developers’ attorney, would not comment on the project’s financial status but said they are still working on it.
 
Source: The South Bergenite, Once-promising development slows

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BTE Investment Group, in a joint venture with The William Warren Group, received $6.3-million in construction financing for a new self-storage facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The four-year-term loan is through First California Bank of Los Angeles. The partnership plans to break ground on the 80,000-square-foot storage facility in the coming weeks.

Founded by partners Chris Itule and Fred Simanek in 2006, BTE Investment Group specializes in acquiring, developing and managing commercial properties in growing real estate markets.

The William Warren Group is a privately held real estate company that develops, acquires and operates income-producing assets in Arizona, California, Colorado and Hawaii. The company operates self-storage properties under the name StorQuest Self Storage.

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Florida-based Sentry Self Storage LLC, which provides management services to independent self-storage owners and investors, has been awarded the management contract for Pleasant Hill Self Storage in Kissimmee, Fla. The site consists of 879 units and 138,920 square feet.

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Tech-Fast Self Storage Buildings has redesigned its website at Techfast.com. The revamped site communicates the benefits of the company’s three divisions: Simple Building Solutions, Custom Building Solutions and Partner Building Solutions. The first offers QuickQuote, an online quoting tool through which customers can receive instant quotes on the building of their choice. Custom Building Solutions is for the developer who requires a more hands-on approach for single-story to complex multi-story projects. In this section, visitors can also view “Facility of the Year” projects. Partner Building Solutions offers an opportunity to participate in industry joint ventures.

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OpenTech Alliance Inc. has upgraded its INSOMNIAC 300 self-storage kiosk to rent units and process payments around the clock. The unit, which sells for $9,000, provides a solution for larger self-storage facilities that wish to minimize staff requirements.
 
The INSOMNIAC 300 is a freestanding kiosk that accepts checks, cash and credit cards, and comes with "Megan," the on-screen assistant who walks customers through the rental or payment process in English or Spanish. Renters sign their rental documents with the latest on-screen touch technology and can even have the documents e-mailed to them or provided by the property manager when the office is open.

Deason Financial Group LLC of Longview, Texas, recently recapitalized a mixed-use self-storage and retail property in Granbury, Texas. Through debt financing provided by a correspondent lender in East Texas, more than $500,000 of liquidity was created for the property owner. The loan closed in March. The new five-year, fixed interest rate lowered the financing costs by more than 100 basis points.
 
The property consists of approximately 300 storage units and 12 retail frontage spaces.  The original units were built in 1973 and developed in four stages, which resulted in an inconsistent look. A portion of the loan was re-invested into the property for renovations.

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