Inner Space Stations, a business network of gas and automobile-service stations in the United Kingdom, has invested £40,000 ($60,500) to add 40 self-storage units to Hull Road BP Service Station, the companys flagship location in York, England.

Owner Graham Kennedy said he came up with the idea after transporting his daughters belongings to her college residence in Nottingham. The units at the service station will primarily serve students attending the University of York campus in nearby Heslington.

The business has onsite staff 24 hours per day as well as closed-circuit television cameras. I dont know of any other service station in the U.K. that has this service, and I dont think anybody can offer the access that we do, Graham said. We expect a lot of interest to come in the summer when all the students go home.

The Jenkins Organization Inc., a self-storage operator, developer and management company, has purchased Texas Best Self Storage in Mansfield, Texas. The 39,000-square-foot facility will be expanded to 79,000 square feet this spring. It will be renamed Mansfield Self Storage, company officials said.

The 4.2-acre property is located a half-block south of Debbie Lane on Highway 157. The facility was built in 2002 and offers ground-level standard and temperature-controlled units, onsite management, gated access, surveillance cameras and moving supplies.

The Mansfiled Self Storage purchase fits the mold of the types of properties that we are currently targeting, which are existing, well-located properties that offer expansion capability, said Ricky Jenkins, company president.

The acquisition brings the number of owned and managed properties under The Jenkins Organization to 53, serving approximately 23,000 customers. Based in Houston, the company has a managed-property portfolio valued at more than $200 million. The company specializes in self-storage acquisitions, development and management. Its real estate development services include sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions.

Amherst, N.Y.-based real estate investment trust Sovran Self Storage Inc., which operates the Uncle Bobs Self Storage brand, will pay its shareholders a quarterly dividend of $0.48 per share of common stock for the first quarter of 2013 that ended March 31. The dividend will be paid on April 26 to shareholders of record as of April 12.

Sovrans annualized dividend is $1.92 per share, same as the fourth quarter of 2012.

The companys board of directors also approved a new dividend reinvestment plan through its transfer agent, American Stock Transfer and Trust Company LLC. We are pleased to be able to offer our shareholders a convenient way to build on their investment in Sovran Self Storage, said Andy Gregoire, chief financial officer.

The plan will be mailed to all registered shareholders with enrollment information, company officials said.

Sovran operates 443 properties in 25 states. The company is actively acquiring additional self-storage facilities.

American Buildings Co. (ABC), which designs, manufactures and delivers metal buildings and roofing systems for self-storage and other industries, has hired Chip Wilson as its new North Georgia District Manager. Wilson has 25 years of experience in insulation-sales management. In his new position, his main focus will be on recruiting new national accounts, according to Toby Anderson, sales manager of ABCs South Division.

He most recently served as a special products manager on the on the insulation side of the metal-building industry, in a position in which he developed a telemarketing program, which increased sales 25 percent; co-authored Operation Focus, a program that identified and targeted new business; and assisted in development of marketing plans for new products.

Wilson holds a bachelors degree in marketing and accounting from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga. He and his family reside in Marietta, Ga.

Its an honor to join American Buildings Co. as a district manager, said Wilson. I look forward to working with the South Division team to bring long-term success to both our employees and our partners in business.

ABC has manufactured industrial and commercial structures for a range of industries for more than 65 years. The company works with a network of more than 850 authorized builders and has manufacturing facilities in Eufaula, Ala., Carson City, Nev., El Paso, Ill., and LaCrosse, Va.

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Stor-All Systems Inc., which operates self-storage facilities under the Stor-All Storage name, has hired industry veteran Janet Howard as its area coach in Florida for Dade County and South Broward County. Howard will supervise 18 facility managers and oversee the daily operations of nine Stor-All properties.

Howard comes to Stor-All after spending 10 years as a district manager for a large self-storage operator. She ranked in the top 20 percent of the companys 212 district managers nationwide, Stor-All officials said.

My experience with Stor-All since I have joined the family has been fantastic. I thank God every day when I get up in the morning that I have joined such a successful, family-oriented company that really cares about their people, Howard said.

Howard has a bachelors degree in business administration and began her career in retail management. She also was a territory operations manager for a major fast-food chain, serving as the liaison between the corporation and franchisees.

Founded in 1967, Stor-All Storage operates 44 facilities in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia from its headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The company also provides real estate brokerage, asset selection, underwriting, construction, development, property management and investor-relations services to its individual investment partnerships.

Mike Whaling, owner of Airport Mini-Storage in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada, is tired of other local small-business owners who do not pay their fair share in property taxes, licensing fees or zoning fees. While Whaling said he pays nearly $30,000 a year in property taxes, he maintains other businesses never go through the process of getting licensed and go undetected by the city.

A few years ago, a competing self-storage facility was twice taken to court by Mount Hope for operating without proper zoning, but Whaling said the business was back operational the following day each time it was fined.

It was a joke, Whaling said. The fine was a slap on the wrist. The word on the street is that in Hamilton, as long as you operate under the radar, maybe move out to the (rural) areas, youll get away with running a business out of your home. The city hasnt even figured out how much income it has lost.

Whaling said he spent nearly $100,000 in associated fees getting his self-storage business operational. The owner of a restaurant chain operating two unlicensed locations in nearby Hamilton recently said the company did not file for a license partially due to having to pay high rezoning fees.

These entrepreneurs prior to buying a property have to know everything there is to know what it is they can do with that property. Its up to them, Whaling said. Otherwise its not fair to the guy who is running his business properly, doing his due diligence and paying his taxes.

Officials in Mount Hope and Hamilton have reallocated internal resources to try to curb the problem and crack down on illegal businesses, including unlicensed places of lodging, massage parlors and other commercial enterprises.

There are 8,000 licensed businesses in Hamilton, but officials said there is no way to know how many additional organizations may be running without a license or in an improperly zoned area.

OpenTech Alliance Inc., a Phoenix-based provider of self-serve kiosks, call-center services and other technology solutions for the self-storage industry, has released its newest self-service solution: the INSOMNIAC 50 in-store bilingual office assistant. The 50 is a plug-and-play kiosk that can be quickly installed on the countertop or inside the rental office at a self-storage facility.

Customers can use the wireless, interactive, touchscreen computer to rent units, make payments, buy tenant insurance, access their accounts and more. Facility managers can monitor and control the entire process from their desktop PC, entering data, selecting options and even pointing out unit locations on the digital property map.

The INSOMNIAC 50 includes English and Spanish text and voice prompts, onscreen keyboard and signature capture, a credit card reader, a digital camera and a 15-inch screen integrated with a Windows-based computer. It comes equipped with the same software that operates the entire line of OpenTech kiosks and is backed by the company's technical-support team.

"The countertop has always been one of the most important spaces at a self-storage facility. A tool like this can eliminate lots of paperwork, printing, copying and filing, freeing up managers to spend more time building personal connections with customers and marketing their facilities through community participation," said Anne Ballard, president of marketing, training and developmental services for Universal Storage Group. "This is a great first step to going paperless as well as providing documents electronically for customers."

With the INSOMNIAC 50, lease documents are signed electronically and stored securely in the OpenTech Self Storage Cloud.

The cost of the in-store office assistant is $1,500, plus a $750 fee for set-up, training and customization, and $75 per month for the INSOMNIAC Software as a Service subscription.

In addition to its INSOMNIAC kiosks, OpenTech provides a range of self-storage rental solutions including the INSOMNIAC Live! Call Center, INSOMNIAC Online Web and mobile applications, LiveAgent! software products, and the INSOMNIAC ILock System, all available through the company's Self-Storage Cloud.

By Sherri Elliott-Yeary

The sweeping health-care reform passed in 2010 finally takes full form in 2014. Heres what self-storage owners needs to know.

The countdown to 2014when the entirety of the health-care legislation passed in 2010 is set to take effecthas begun. Three major changes will happen next year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and each poses challenges for employers:

• First, all taxpayers will be required to show proof of health insurance when paying their taxes or pay a penalty.
• Second, employers with more than 50 full-time employees will be required to provide health insurance or pay a penalty.
• Third, employees will have a choice between purchasing health insurance at work and receiving the employer contributions or purchasing it in an exchange and receiving federal subsidies to lower the cost of premiums.

Heres a more detailed look into what self-storage employers need to know to prepare.

The Mandate

Every man, woman and child will be required to have health coverage starting in 2014. This means a large number of the uninsured will join exchanges and take advantage of this new low-cost avenue to purchase health insurance without exclusions for pre-existing conditions or history.

However, many experts believe only the sick will purchase insurance immediately since they cannot be turned away or charged higher rates. Millions of young, healthy people may simply pay the penalty for at least the first few years$95 in 2014, for exampleor wait until they become sick to sign up for insurance. This is good news if youre an uninsurable sick person. But for employers, its likely to mean higher rates to cover the increased costs to the system.

Pay or Play

Starting in 2014, employers with more than 50 full-time employees are required to provide health insurance, or else theyll have to pay a penalty if at least one employee joins the exchange and receives a subsidy. The penalty is $2,000 per full-time employee over 30 employees. In other words, if an employer has 60 full-time employees, he will pay a penalty on 30 employees.

For some businesses, however, paying a penalty may be cheaper than offering insurance. Many companies are considering their options, weighing the impact of dropping insurance on recruitment and its effect on their ability to attract talent.

Furthermore, companies can be subject to penalties if the cost of self-only insurance is more than 9.5 percent of an employees income and the employee enters the exchange. If the cost is higher than the 9.5 percent threshold, the insurance is deemed unaffordable, and the employer is penalized at $3,000 per full-time employee who opts for the exchange.

The Exchange

By 2014, each state is supposed to establish a health-care exchange where its citizens can shop for health insurance among plans offered by various private insurers. Most states have refused to implement this, which will place the burden on the federal government to pick up the expense. At this point, no one knows what the exchanges will look like or how theyll work, but most experts envision a website that will function like a traditional e-commerce website.

Starting in March 2014, employers will be required to provide a written notice to employees explaining how the exchanges work and the employees option to decline the employers insurance in favor of the exchange. If the employee purchases coverage through the exchange, the federal government will provide premium assistance in the form of an advanceable tax credit based on income level and number of dependents. Employees making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for the subsidy. That equals roughly $90,000 for a family of four.

In all, some employers may find little impact on participation in their plans, while others may see a mass exodus to the exchange. If the latter happens, the employer group will be smaller, likely driving up costs further. Its therefore incumbent on employers to be prepared and model out a worst-case scenarioand sooner rather than later.

Sherri Elliott-Yeary is an author, speaker and  consultant in the area of human resources and talent management. She is president of Human Capital Solutions, a division of Imprimis Group.  To reach her, call 214.802.2345; e-mail [email protected] ; visit www.generationalguru.com .