Compass Self Storage, a member of the Amsdell family of companies, has extended the offer of free storage and packing supplies to LeBron James in the event the National Basketball Association player and free agent decides to sign on with the Cleveland Cavaliers in Ohio.

The self-storage operator is opening a new facility at 1549 Superior Ave. in downtown Cleveland next month. The conversion of three existing buildings will encompass a 60,000-square-foot, 700-unit property operated by Compass Self Storage LLC. It is the first storage project the company has completed in the city where it is headquartered.

“We believe in the future of Cleveland, as evidenced with the investment in our newest project on Superior Avenue. We would welcome LeBron’s return to the city with open arms and would be happy to assist in making the move easier for him,” said Todd Amsdell, company president.

James grew up in Akron, Ohio, and was selected with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cavaliers. He left the team in 2010 to play for the Miami Heat, then opted out of his contract this year to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Headquartered in Cleveland, the Amsdell Cos. draws its roots from the family-owned construction company founded in 1928. The company, which owns and operates self-storage properties in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, has since been active in several billions of dollars worth of real estate ventures with a primary focus in self-storage.

 

Schoeppner Inc., a Rochester, Minn., general contractor, is set to enter the self-storage industry with a facility opening next week and a second location scheduled to open this fall. All Around Self Storage at 1770 75th St. N.E. will begin serving customers on Monday, with 81 units available. The property is adjacent to the company’s office in the northeast part of the city and will eventually offer 180 units, according to the source.

Due to the proximity of the facility to the Schoeppner office, the company’s staff will assist customers. "There's a huge need for [storage]," owner Tammy Schoeppner said. "We had land in the back that we had no use for, so we decided to do this."

A second facility is under construction in the southwest part of Rochester. Called Southwest Storage, the facility at 5253 Commercial Drive S.W. will offer 200 units as well as boat and RV storage. It is expected to open in September.

The site is at the end of a frontage road along U.S. 52 South. The project is near where a 42,000-square-foot entertainment complex was proposed seven years ago but never built. Schoeppner said this area of the city is growing and is a good fit for self-storage.

Schoeppner Inc. is a family owned business founded in 1997. It is a full-service general contractor and design company that has worked with commercial, manufacturing and industrial clients, according to its website.

Metro Storage LLC, which operates more than 80 self-storage facilities in 11 states, has purchased three Storage King properties in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The assets comprise 259,650 rentable square feet in 1,944 units and will be rebranded as Metro Self Storage.

The acquisition follows the purchase last month of a 78,878-square-foot facility in Limerick, Pa. The company now has seven storage facilities in the Philadelphia market. Metro Storage also recently acquired a three-property portfolio in the Atlanta area.

“These are three exceptional stores,” said Blair Nagel, CEO. “The addition of these properties will enable us to further leverage the Metro brand in the Philadelphia area.”

The properties are:

• 3952 N. Providence Road, Newtown Square, Pa. – The three-building facility comprises 84,825 rentable square feet in 606 units.
• 1354 Hook Road, Sharon Hill, Pa. – The property comprises 96,525 rentable square feet in 680 units.
• 4440 E. Bristol Road, Trevose, Pa. – The facility comprises 78,300 rentable square feet in 658 units.

Headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., Metro Storage is a privately owned, fully integrated real estate operating company specializing in the development, acquisition and management of self-storage facilities nationwide.

Self-storage operator PhilMor Real Estate Investments LLC has received approval to build a storage facility in Shrewsbury, Mass. The property will comprise more than 63,000 net rentable square feet and operate under the Casey Storage Solutions brand. The asset will be managed by Casey Property Management LLC.

The facility at 757-789 Boston Turnpike Road (Route 9) will feature indoor and drive-up units, climate control, gated access, video surveillance, and a full range packing and moving supplies, company officials said in a press release.

"We are excited to be expanding our self-storage offerings in the central Massachusetts market," said Morgan Hanlon, a partner with PhilMor.

The facility will be the fifth location in Central Massachusetts for Casey Storage Solutions and the company’s 10th in the Northeast. PhilMor has self-storage locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The company’s property-management group offers turnkey services to storage owners in the Northeast.

Self-Storage real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage Inc. has partnered with Locus Energy, a provider of solar-panel monitoring and data analytics, to help manage the 150 solar-panel systems installed at Extra Space properties. The partnership comes following the release of Locus Energy’s Virtual Irradiance (VI) modeling tool, which provides solar-fleet operators with data on the amount of sunlight striking the ground, enabling an accurate assessment of a solar-photovoltaic system’s performance, according to a joint press release.

"As our solar fleet has grown, it became clear that we needed a more precise tool for assessing how our solar assets are performing," said Nathan Morrill, national procurement manager for Extra Space. "After working with VI, we are much more aware of how much energy each and every one of our sites should be producing, which helps us prioritize [operations and maintenance] activity."

"VI enables the [photovoltaic] industry to identify which solar systems fail to meet performance expectations, assess how much value was lost, and efficiently solve problems at an individual site or across an entire portfolio," added Michael Herzig, CEO of Locus Energy.

VI uses data from weather stations and satellite imagery to provide ground-level irradiance data for any location in the continental United States, Locus officials said. For small- to mid-sized systems, VI is intended to eliminate the need for an onsite sensor. For larger systems for which an onsite sensor may already have been installed, VI is designed to fill in gaps and validate sensor data, which can become skewed due to miscalibration, soiling and other factors, according to the release.

"To sustain growth at the record levels of the past few years, the solar industry needs to find new ways to cut soft costs," said Pavel Molchanov, senior vice president and equity research analyst for financial advisory firm Raymond James & Associates. "Locus' VI can be a useful tool for solar-asset managers looking to efficiently keep tabs on their growing asset base and keep ancillary costs to a minimum."

Locus Energy has more than 40,000 solar-monitoring and data-analytics platforms deployed across the residential, commercial and utility sectors. The company’s cloud-based software aggregates, organizes and analyzes performance data from multiple sources to help fleet managers access, manage and identify the causes of a solar-panel system's failure to meet performance expectations.

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.

The U-Haul Co. of Western Arizona and the U-Haul Co. of Northern Arizona will host grand re-opening events on July 12 for two of its newly renovated self-storage facilities in the Phoenix area: U-Haul Moving and Storage of Litchfield Park, Goodyear and Waddell in Litchfield Park, Ariz.; and U-Haul Moving and Storage at 67th and Bell in Glendale, Ariz. The events will include food and drinks provided by Kitchen on the Street (KOS AZ), a faith-based, nonprofit organization that offers food-assistance programs to families. The charity will be at the Glendale U-Haul at 6544 W. Bell Road from 9 to 11 a.m., and at the Litchfield Park location at 16835 W. Northern Ave. from noon to 2 p.m.

The Litchfield Park facility opened in September 2008. Located off the Loop 303 freeway and west of Luke Air Force Base, the facility includes 229 covered RV-parking spaces, climate-controlled units and a warehouse for the company’s U-Box pod storage.

"Our grand opening will be a great way for the public to see our location and the new features we have added," said Jason Turcotte, marketing president of the U-Haul Co. of Western Arizona. "We are excited to offer convenient ways to meet the moving needs in the Phoenix area."

The Glendale facility opened in July 1984 near a retail and commercial area. It expanded in 2012 with the addition of a 58,107-square-foot building. The property now has six buildings and six RV-parking spaces. Additional services include U-Box pod storage, propane refill and hitch sales.

"We are excited to celebrate the additions to our facility in Glendale," said Mark Buford, marketing president of the U-Haul Co. of Northern Arizona. "I am proud that we were able to reuse an old building to increase our services to the residents in the area."

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.

KOS AZ is a 501c3 charity established in 2007 by the Scarpinato Family after they learned about the prevalence of food insecurity among Arizona children. The organization provides a number of programs including food for local students in need. It also operates a food truck at local events and has a branch in San Antonio, Texas.

By Shelly Anderson

You’ve seen the postings on craigslist and Monster.com … Employer after employer, listing job after job, saying basically the same things in the same ways. And what happens when candidates read what amounts to a help-wanted sign taped to a storefront window? The poster gets flooded with résumés and cover letters, forcing him to invest hours searching for the one applicant in the proverbial haystack who’s right for the job.

But what if a job posting was more than just an ad for an available position? What if it actually steered the right candidate into responding while politely sending others on their way? Believe it or not, writing a job posting that screens applicants as much as it recruits them is easier than you think. Consider the following pointers when writing your next wanted ad for a self-storage manager or support staff.

Write With Personality

Your company has a culture, so put it in your posting! I’m not talking about a mindless listing of culture clichés. Instead, your ad should sound the way people talk and act at your self-storage facilities (within reason, of course).

Start with the post title and go from there. Don’t just list a generic position; add some flair. “Marketing director” is about as generic as “salt.” To write that you’re seeking a “marketing director for rapidly expanding storage business” says a lot more and will attract much more attention. If your facilities are casual, say so. If you’re not into titles, let candidates know it. Personality is vital, so find your voice and use it.

Be Specific About the Job

Nothing screens faster than good old-fashioned requirements, but don’t get too carried away. List the things your candidate must have to be considered for the job and only those criteria. For example, if a candidate could be successful without “knowledge of Excel,” then don’t list it.

Candidates see requirements as deal-breakers, and rightfully so. If you list every last skill the job might require, you’ll create a boring posting—and you just might screen out the perfect candidate for a less-than-perfect reason. Job requirements should consist of the absolute essentials, not a laundry list describing a contender who doesn’t actually exist.

Talk About Your Company

Why should a person want to work at your company? Really think about it and describe the two or three reasons why working for you is better than working for anyone else. This is where personality can really help. Be casual and conversational. If things aren’t perfect—like maybe you’re growing at a chaotic pace—then say so. There’s no need to sugarcoat it.

The right candidate will be attracted to the job for the right reasons, and those who wouldn’t fit into a culture like yours will simply move on now rather than two weeks into the job. Let applicants get a better understanding of what it’s really like to work with you. They’ll quickly self-screen themselves into or out of the job.

It’s a Career, But Fun Is Still Allowed

You want candidates to be excited about your job posting. If you have big news—for example, the company won an award, grew faster than expected, opened a new location—share it and don’t be shy about it. The more candidates get a feeling for who you are and where your company is going, the more they’ll want to be a part of it. If you have photos that show your people or facility, show them.

Anther smart thing to include? A link to your website, which will allow candidates to explore and decide if your opportunity is right for them. They’re going to visit your site whether or not you want them to, so you might as well make it easy for them to find you.

Read It Out Loud a Few Times

Yes, read it out loud. You may get some strange looks from colleagues, but it’s the only way to know that you’ve really created a posting that’s interesting, easy to read and loaded with personality. When you read, you actually “hear” the words. You’re doing it right now, in fact! That’s why you should always read postings out loud: to make sure they sound right. If they don’t, start at the top of this list and edit away. Then read them out loud all over again.

So now that you know the basics, give it a try. The next time you write a job post, follow these tips and see how the way you write can help attract the right candidate. If you do it correctly, you’ll create a posting that won’t appeal to everyone, which is exactly the idea.

You don’t want to attract the person who’s just looking for a job. You want the potential employee who’s excited about what you have to say, who thinks he would be a perfect fit in your culture. It’s much smarter to get 10 résumés from 10 perfect candidates than to get a 100 résumés from whoever happens to be reading Monster.com that day. It’s a much better use of your time, too.

Shelly Anderson, CEO of Michaels Wilder, has more than 20 years of experience across multiple human resources disciplines. She has worked within Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 organizations as well as overseas in Australia and Venezuela. Michaels Wilder is a full-service, marketing-communications agency specializing in online marketing, local search advertising, social media marketing, mobile media, brand development, research and consulting, media planning and talent management, with more than 20 years of experience in the self-storage industry. For more information, call 800.423.6468; visit www.michaelswilder.com or its sister division www.s2esolutions.com.

Premier Storage Investors LLC, a real estate investment and development company, recently acquired its first self-storage asset, Broadway Self Storage in Holbrook, N.Y. In addition, the company has six more storage properties under contract or letter of intent for an approximate purchase price of $30 million. The company plans to complete these real estate transactions in the next few months, according to a press release.

Broadway Self Storage, 640 Broadway Ave., offers climate control, individually alarmed units, and exterior parking for RVs, boats and other vehicles. Additional amenities include package-delivery acceptance, moving and packing supplies, and online bill-pay options.

“We are very pleased to have closed our first asset within the first six months of our company’s formation,” said James G. “Pete” Williams, a company principal.

Founded in January 2014, Premier Storage has an exclusive focus on acquiring and developing self-storage real estate within the top 40 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, according to the release. Its executives have extensive experience within the self-storage real estate sector, having executed acquisitions, development and dispositions, the release stated.

Williams founded Premier Storage Solutions in 1997, and has developed 17 storage facilities. Previously, he served as vice president and senior vice president/director of acquisitions for Storage USA Inc. from 1989 to 1997. To date, Williams has been responsible for the acquisition, development and disposition of more than $2 billion of self-storage facilities and other real estate investments.

The company’s second principal, Douglas Michael McCarron, has more than nine years of experience in the self-storage property and capital markets. In 2007, he was a founding partner of Storage Investment Advisors, a self-storage investment firm. McCarron has been involved in more than $2.5 billion in self-storage transactions.

U.K. self-storage company Lok'nStore Group PLC has released its pre-close financial report for the second half of its 2014 fiscal year, which will end July 31. The company followed up a strong first half with continued growth, reporting self-storage revenue is on target for a 10.2 percent increase compared to the second half of its 2013 fiscal year. Storage revenue was up 7.8 percent during the first six months of its 2014 fiscal year, according to a company press release.

Lok'nStore also anticipates an occupancy increase of 9.6 percent and a rent-per-square-foot gain of nearly 6.4 percent, year over year. Ancillary sales have also been robust, with the company reporting a 25 percent sales increase in boxes and packaging and a 17 percent gain in tenant insurance, according to the source.

Company officials said the strong numbers are an indication of the continued strengthening of the British economy as well as the result of steps taken to enhance operating efficiency during the recession. "Trading this year has been very strong, with occupancy, prices, revenue and profit all moving strongly ahead,” said Andrew Jacobs, CEO. “Looking at our development pipeline, our new flagship store in Maidenhead, [England], opened in December, and early trading has been robust, quickly reaching profitability."

The company has four self-storage facilities under development in Aldershot, Bristol, Reading and Southampton, England, that are scheduled to open in the next 18 months. The Reading location is expected to open in October, Jacobs said.

Lok’nStore builds, buys or leases large warehouses or industrial buildings and rents storage units to customers on a weekly basis. Around 60 percent of the company's 7,000 customers are residential and 40 percent are commercial. Lok’nStore has more than 920,000 square feet of net rentable space, which is evenly split between freehold and leasehold.