A self-storage development proposed for the Hart area of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, was debated during a public hearing on Monday. Developers Matte Bros. & Sons Construction Ltd. and Comet Investments Ltd. have applied for zoning and community-plan changes to build the storage facility at the intersection of Monterey Road and Highway 97. The companies have also proposed to build a motel and restaurant on the west side of the highway.

The self-storage development would require site-specific zoning. While some residents indicated support for the motel and restaurant, some are not as keen about the possible storage property.

"I feel that a storage facility at that location will be an eyesore for people entering the community," said resident Brodie Otway, who wrote a letter to the city. "These types of businesses don't employ many people, so there would be minimal direct economic benefit to residents in the area. Also, most homes in the area are on large lots with garages, sheds and shops, so the residents generally have very little need for storage units."

Other residents also wrote letters expressing concern about the possible negative impact the storage facility and motel could have on property values.

Prior to the hearing, city staff recommended to approve the applications, saying the development’s proximity to a major intersection along the highway would be better suited for commercial use than low-density residential, according to the source.

The proposed zone "requires that any commercial uses be oriented towards Monterey Road to establish prominence over the mini-storage units and to create a more inviting curb appeal," the staff report said.

The board of directors for Extra Space Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust, has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share on the company's common stock for the second quarter of 2014. This is a 17.5 percent increase over the previous quarter. The dividend is payable on June 30 to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 13.

In addition, the company released its first-quarter financial results on April 28 and held a conference call on April 29. CEO Spencer Kirk and Scott Stubbs, executive vice president and chief financial officer, hosted the call, which included a review of the company’s first-quarter performance, a discussion of recent events, and a question-and-answer period for registered financial analysts. A complete summary of the results are available at extraspace.com.

The company reported same-store revenue increased 7.9 percent and net operating income rose 9.4 percent compared to the same period in 2013. Same-store occupancy grew by 200 basis points to 90.4 percent as of March 31, compared to 88.4 percent at the same time in 2013.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space owns or operates 1,052 self-storage properties in 35 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. The company’s properties comprise approximately 700,000 units and 78 million square feet of rentable space.

U-Haul Co. of Las Vegas West has purchased the Pic-N-Pac Storage facility at 3083 W. Lake Mead Blvd. in Las Vegas. The facility is just south of the North Las Vegas Airport and will be rebranded as U-Haul Moving and Storage at W. Lake Mead Boulevard. The property has one two-story storage building and a single-story office and apartment. Built in 2005, it includes 634, 543 of which are climate-controlled.

"This is a prime location, as we are one of the only storage centers in the area," said Marc Rasmussen, general manager of the W. Lake Mead property. "We are located right off the corner of a busy intersection, with many housing developments and apartment complexes nearby. This location will be convenient and a great fit for the U-Haul customer."

The acquisition was driven by U-Haul’s corporate sustainability initiatives, which supports infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint, according to a company press release. U-Haul’s adaptive reuse of existing buildings eliminates the amount of energy and resources required for new-construction materials and helps local cities diminish their unwanted inventory of unused buildings, U-Haul officials said.

Established in 1945, U-Haul International Inc. has more than 40 million square feet of storage space at more than 1,000 owned and managed facilities throughout North America.

By Frank Certo

As the busy season arrives, self-storage operators are abuzz with anticipation. For many operations, the next three or four months will make or break the entire year. Some of you are spending time and money to improve curb appeal, upgrade software, and accomplish other tasks to better accommodate the rush of customers. But what are you doing to ensure your store is and continues to be a safe place for employees, site visitors and tenants?

Safety and crime prevention is vital to the long-term relationship you have in your community and the growth of your business. Nothing is ever fool-proof, but we can be as proactive as possible by having a multi-faceted approach.

Focus on Security

When you first got approval to build self-storage in the neighborhood, some residents may have been concerned because other operators in the past allowed their facilities to fall into disrepair and failed to properly address site security. This may have led to crime and mischievous behavior that required the attention of local authorities. It may even have been a source of community tension.

Self-storage users now seek a higher standard, and facility operators who fail to live up to it invite bad behavior. It’s our responsibility to not let this occur. We want to maintain a strong relationship in the community and keep getting those referrals, so security is a must.

There are many types of systems you can use to provide security and peace of mind to customers and local residents. It’s best to use several layers of security to cover it all as best you can.

Perimeter fencing with secure access points is a basic necessity all stores should have. Fencing helps designate the operational lines. Secure gates slide or lift when a code is entered, and are tied into your software so customers can enter/exit the property safely and properly.

Lots of bright lighting and signage should indicate where fencing and gates are located. This allows local authorities to watch over the property and makes customers feel safe while visiting their units. In addition, keypads at the gate areas and building and elevator entrances prohibits folks who aren’t supposed to be there.

Video cameras and recording devices keep watch on the property at all times. Record activity to review later, if necessary. All main entrances, drive lanes and potential areas of suspicious should be under the eye of a modern camera, capable of picking up images at all times of day and zooming in when needed.

Alarms are obviously very important to the security of your self-storage facility. At minimum, the office should be armed and monitored by a reputable company that ties directly into local authorities and property staff. Individual unit alarms are a next-level system, and they can be wired or wireless. They tie directly into your management software and keep even current customers from sniffing around others’ units.

Finally, secure empty units with facility locks. Motion sensors can be armed and unarmed via codes in the gate software or set to automatically turn on or off according to your access schedule.

Strong Relationships

Your local police department and business community will be happy to know you’ve installed all these systems to help keep your business safe and secure. Now it’s time to leverage those relationships.

Provide the police department with a gate-access code and encourage them to patrol your property now and then. You can even offer a rental discount, or invite police or firefighters to conduct training at your site. If you do this, let tenants know verbally and via signage that you’ve partnered with local authorities to keep your facility crime-free. A sign stating, “K-9 Drug Dogs Are Trained Here” can ward off anyone considering using your facility for criminal intent. 

The next biggest relationship is the one with your security vendor. Make sure your representative understands how important safety and peace of mind are to your customers and local residents. Have a periodic maintenance agreement in place to keep all systems modern and in working order.

Finally, ask your tenants to report any suspicious activity to you. Those who frequently access your property can be an extra set of eyes. Make it easy for them to report anyone who looks mistrustful directly to you, or encourage them to call the authorities if they believe a crime is being committed.

Proactive Procedures

Now that you’ve installed the right equipment, it’s working properly, and local police are conducting routine security checks, it’s time to address the procedures you’ve put in place and spelled out in your operations manual. These will tell staff how they should handle day-to-day activities and crime prevention.

Training new employees on the importance of keeping all their senses alert when at the store and around customers can prove to be time well-spent. Routinely review your protocols for handling onsite criminal activity.

Starting with the move-in, managers should be proactive about explaining the property’s security systems and your expectations of tenants. This puts new renters at ease and speaks to your facility’s sophistication in this area. Again, this is your opportunity to enlist customers’ help in reporting suspicious activity. Neighborhood crime watches are also very effective.

Routine inspections of the property by the staff will keep any issues to a minimum and alert you quickly when anything does happen. You can also tap into your management software to review code entries, lengths of visit, etc., to monitor who’s accessing your property and when. Having strong routines and schedules for your operation, office hours, access hours, procedures, and appropriate signage will aid in the fight against crime.

The standing your business has in the community is extremely important and something we all hope to build on every day. Everyone should know your property is a safe place to be. This reputation can be established and strengthened through systems, relationships and proactive procedures that help keep our focus where it should be—on busy-season sales and revenue growth.

Frank Certo has more than 20 years of experience in recruiting, coaching and developing high-performance personnel. He’s had roles in sales management, operations and staff management for the last 15 years, many of which were in the self-storage industry. He’s currently the director of property management for Guardian Storage, which operates 16 facilities in Colorado and Pennsylvania. For more information, call 412.661.7368; visit www.guardianstorage.com.  

A man barricaded himself inside a 10-by-8-foot unit at South Jersey Self Storage in Blackwood, N.J., on Saturday with five firearms but surrendered peacefully to responding officers from the Gloucester Township Police Department. The standoff took about an hour, and officers recovered three rifles and two handguns from the unit, according to news sources.

Blackwood is an unincorporated area within Gloucester Township. Officers from the township responded to a request from the Runnemede Police Department to “to locate a subject who may have had a change in mental status,” according to the source. It is unclear if the man was a tenant at the self-storage facility on Harmon Drive.

When officers located the suspect at the storage business and found he had barricaded himself inside the unit, they set up a perimeter around the unit and issued a “shelter-in-place” order, which is similar to a lockdown, at a nearby business, police officials said. The police also contacted the man’s family, who said he might be in possession of several firearms.

Officers from the township’s Special Response Team and Crisis Negotiation Unit handled the incident. The unidentified suspect was transported to Kennedy University Hospital in Cherry Hill, N.J., for “medical clearance,” police said.

Inside Self-Storage (ISS) has published a new online slideshow titled, “Don’t Be a Social Media Amateur! Advice to Strengthen Your Self-Storage Company’s Online Marketing Presence.” The presentation includes insight and tips on using popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest to promote self-storage businesses and engage potential customers.

Social media has become an increasingly important marketing channel for self-storage operators, but each platform has its own idiosyncrasies and strategic ways to best interact with users. The slideshow includes demographic information on several platforms and advice from self-storage Web marketing experts on how operators can leverage them.

Housed in the ISS Resource Center, the slideshow can be viewed at www.insideselfstorage.com/topics/slide-shows.aspx and downloaded in a PDF format for future reference.

For nearly 25 years, ISS has provided informational resources for the self-storage industry. Its educational offerings include ISS magazine, the annual Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Las Vegas, an extensive website, the ISS Store, and Self-Storage Talk, the industry’s largest online community.

Update 5/27/14 – The combined purchase total for Virtus Real Estate Capital’s recent acquisition was $4 million. The company paid $2.17 million for the facility in Rogers and $1.62 million for the one in Bentonville. The facilities will be renamed Rogers Self Storage and Bentonville Storage, respectively. Combined, the facilities have more than 800 storage units.

The individual sellers are part of A&A Storage’s limited-liability company, which is based in Tarzana, Calif. In 2007, the LLC paid $2.12 million for the Rogers facility and $1.77 million for the Bentonville property.

Virtus targeted Northwest Arkansas due to the lack of storage ownership in the area and its growing economy, Humphreys told the source. The company is in negotiations to purchase a third Arkansas facility and also recently entered the Oklahoma market, he said.

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Virtus Real Estate Capital, a real estate private equity firm, recently acquired two self-storage facilities in Arkansas through a joint venture with Absolute Storage Management (ASM), a real estate owner and operator. The purchase is the first in the region for both companies.

The A&A Stor It portfolio includes a 57,700-square-foot facility in Bentonville, Ark., and a 72,025-square-foot facility in Rogers, Ark. Built between 1993 and 1995, the facilities encompass more than 800 units. Opened nine years ago, the Bentonville site at 804 S.E. J St. is south of Walmart’s headquarters on an infill location. The Rogers facility at 104 N. 24th St. opened 12 years ago and underwent a 2001 expansion that added two new buildings totaling 22,000 square feet of storage space.

ASM plans to spend more than $120,000 on facility upgrades across the two sites. Virtus will address asphalt repairs, door repair and painting, office rehabilitations, additional security elements, and other improvements at both locations.

"We’re excited to be establishing a solid footprint with these two self-storage acquisitions in a region we feel will continue to see economic growth across a number of different industries and undergo consistent population increases," said Virtus Acquisitions Director Scott Humphreys. “We’ve seen impressive gains in our portfolio of existing ASM-managed stores, and are confident in its ability to drive rental rates and maintain stabilized occupancies through best-in-class operations with a hands-on approach.”

Based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2003, Virtus has acquired more than $2 billion of commercial real estate in more than 150 properties across the United States. The company is actively seeking additional opportunities to acquire storage properties in its target markets. Founded in 2002, ASM provides third-party management services in the southeastern United States. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., the company operates more than 75 properties in 13 states.

 

Update 5/27/14 – The combined purchase total for Virtus Real Estate Capital’s recent acquisition was $4 million. The company paid $2.17 million for the facility in Rogers and $1.62 million for the one in Bentonville. The facilities will be renamed Rogers Self Storage and Bentonville Storage, respectively. Combined, the facilities have more than 800 storage units.

The individual sellers are part of A&A Storage’s limited-liability company, which is based in Tarzana, Calif. In 2007, the LLC paid $2.12 million for the Rogers facility and $1.77 million for the Bentonville property.

Virtus targeted Northwest Arkansas due to the lack of storage ownership in the area and its growing economy, Humphreys told the source. The company is in negotiations to purchase a third Arkansas facility and also recently entered the Oklahoma market, he said.

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Virtus Real Estate Capital, a real estate private equity firm, recently acquired two self-storage facilities in Arkansas through a joint venture with Absolute Storage Management (ASM), a real estate owner and operator. The purchase is the first in the region for both companies.

The A&A Stor It portfolio includes a 57,700-square-foot facility in Bentonville, Ark., and a 72,025-square-foot facility in Rogers, Ark. Built between 1993 and 1995, the facilities encompass more than 800 units. Opened nine years ago, the Bentonville site at 804 S.E. J St. is south of Walmart’s headquarters on an infill location. The Rogers facility at 104 N. 24th St. opened 12 years ago and underwent a 2001 expansion that added two new buildings totaling 22,000 square feet of storage space.

ASM plans to spend more than $120,000 on facility upgrades across the two sites. Virtus will address asphalt repairs, door repair and painting, office rehabilitations, additional security elements, and other improvements at both locations.

"We’re excited to be establishing a solid footprint with these two self-storage acquisitions in a region we feel will continue to see economic growth across a number of different industries and undergo consistent population increases," said Virtus Acquisitions Director Scott Humphreys. “We’ve seen impressive gains in our portfolio of existing ASM-managed stores, and are confident in its ability to drive rental rates and maintain stabilized occupancies through best-in-class operations with a hands-on approach.”

Based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2003, Virtus has acquired more than $2 billion of commercial real estate in more than 150 properties across the United States. The company is actively seeking additional opportunities to acquire storage properties in its target markets. Founded in 2002, ASM provides third-party management services in the southeastern United States. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., the company operates more than 75 properties in 13 states.

 

AC Self Storage Solutions LLC, an owner, operator and manager of self-storage properties, is supporting cancer research and wounded veterans by teaming up with Charity Storage, a nonprofit organization that raises money for charities through self-storage auctions. The company will launch a program at all 11 of its facilities through which funds will be donated to Kure It, a nonprofit dedicated to funding kidney and other cancer research, and the Warriors and Quiet Waters Foundation, which offers outdoor recreational activities such as fly fishing as therapy for injured U.S. veterans.

Created by Lance Watkins, founder of the self-storage auction site StorageTreasures.com, Charity Storage donates the proceeds from self-storage lien sales to local and national charities. Participating storage operators dedicate a storage unit from inventory as a collection point for donated goods. Departing and current tenants, auction buyers, and local residents and businesses can donate items to the Charity Storage unit and receive a tax-deductible receipt. When the storage facility holds a public auction, the unit is sold alongside tenant-delinquent units, and the money generated is allocated to local and national organizations.

Troy Downing, CEO of AC Self Storage Solutions, has been a long-time supporter, volunteer, donator and adviser to the Quiet Waters Foundation. “As a two-time veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, I have a special connection to many of our American heroes who pass through this program,” Downing said. “I have seen incredible positive changes in the service men and women whom we have had the honor to serve.”

AC Self Storage Solutions has offices in Carlsbad and Newport Beach, Calif., and operates facilities in California, Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.