Morningstar Properties LLC, which operates self-storage facilities under the Morningstar Mini-Storage brand, has acquired Blue Llama Storage at 6826 Alamo Parkway in the Alamo Ranch neighborhood of San Antonio. Built this year, the three-story property comprises 95,000 total square feet, 50,000 of which are climate-controlled, and 575 storage units. It has been rebranded under the Morningstar name.

The acquisition was made through Morningstar’s proprietary investment vehicle Blue Doors Storage Fund II. The property had been owned by ACSTORAGE LLC, according to the release. Morningstar has now made five acquisitions through its self-managed fund and plans to purchase several more assets this year in the Austin, Texas, and San Antonio markets, officials said. The Alamo Ranch asset is the company’s fifth location in the San Antonio metro market.

The Alamo Ranch area has more than 55,000 residents living in an estimated 18,500 households within a 3-mile radius of the property. The region is forecast to grow more than 15 percent during the next five years, compared to the national population growth rate of less than 4 percent, according to the release. The neighborhood is the sixth fastest-growing master-planned community in the United States, company officials said.

“This brand-new and very crisp facility, fittingly named Morningstar of Alamo Ranch, is well situated to serve this very dynamic growth area anchored by the Alamo Ranch master-planned development,” said Dave Benson, president of Morningstar Properties. “As we look to expand our footprint in Texas, the San Antonio [metropolitan statistical area] is a strategic focus."

Founded in North Carolina in 1981, Morningstar Properties is a vertically integrated developer, owner and operator of real estate products focused primarily on self-storage and marinas in the Southeast. The company has acquired, developed and operated more than 135 self-storage projects across the country, totaling more than 8.8 million square feet. It currently owns and operates 36 self-storage centers in nine states, with most concentrated in the South.

Westport Properties Inc. (WPI), which operates 85 self-storage facilities under the US Storage Centers brand, recently expanded its development and real estate teams. The reorganization includes the appointment of Drew Hoeven as president of real estate. He’ll be responsible for overseeing acquisitions on the East Coast as the company looks for opportunities to grow its footprint in the top U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, according to a press release. He’ll also seek development deals and assist with the strategic direction of the company.

“Drew has played an integral role in the growth of our company,” said Charles Byerly, president and CEO. “I’m confident that Drew will continue to build on the success he has achieved and continue to provide opportunities for our company to expand its footprint throughout the Eastern region of the country.”

Hoeven joined WPI in 2005 and most recently served as vice president of acquisitions. He’ll continue to serve as secretary for WPI and US Storage Centers and maintain his seat on the board of directors. He’s the son of company chairman Barry Hoeven.

“Our current acquisitions and development pipelines are robust, and I’m excited about the opportunity to expand our portfolio,” said Drew Hoeven, whose previous acquisitions are credited for more than doubling WPI’s footprint on the East Coast, according to the release.

WPI also hired three team members to lead its development team and added a financial analyst in its real estate department.

Joseph Capasso has joined the company as president of development, responsible for East Coast development opportunities and some national projects. He comes to WPI after stints with self-storage real estate investment trusts Extra Space Storage Inc. and Public Storage Inc. His experience includes overseeing entitlements and self-storage construction projects across the nation, the release stated.

David Kelly and James Preacher have been hired as development managers for the West Coast and East Coast, respectively. Kelly will oversee West Coast development projects with Jamie Alai, vice president of development. Kelly has several years of construction experience working for commercial and residential builders including Regency, Snyder Langston and Standard Pacific Homes.

Preacher will pursue development opportunities on the East Coast. He most recently worked as a consultant, sourcing and entitling self-storage sites for a variety of developers and operators in Florida. He also spent about four years as a development manager with Extra Space. He’s assisted in the development of more than 1 million square feet of self-storage in his career, according to the release.

Joel Smith has joined the company as a financial analyst responsible for due diligence, modeling and underwriting associated with new acquisitions. He comes to WPI from Pacific Southwest Realty Services, where he originated more than $3 million in commercial mortgages and helped close more than $350 million in transactions, the release stated.

“I’m excited about the expansion of our real estate team and the experience and skills that each of them bring to the company,” Byerly said. “Our tradition of hiring industry leaders with multi-disciplinary backgrounds has played a key role in our rapidly expanding company, and I’m confident that this team will exceed the goals of our long-term growth plan.”

Based in Irvine, Calif., WPI is a real estate investment company that acquires, develops and operates self-storage facilities as well as provides third-party management services. It’s affiliated with Westport Memphis Self Storage LLC. The company’s portfolio includes more than 6.5 million square feet of rentable storage space.

Inside Self-Storage (ISS) has announced the winners of its 2015 "Best of Business" reader-choice poll, in which readers voted for their favorite industry suppliers in nearly 40 categories. Voters chose their top companies in categories such as Best Building Components, Best Manager Training, Best Retail Product and many others. The winners for this year, based on verified voting through insideselfstorage.com from June 1-30, can be viewed at www.insideselfstorage.com/best-of-business/2015/index.aspx.

ISS congratulates its esteemed winners, each of which will be featured in the November print edition of ISS magazine. The winners will also be honored with a special commemorative plaque at the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Las Vegas, April 25-28, 2015. Details will be released as the event approaches.

For nearly 25 years, ISS has provided informational resources to self-storage owners, managers, developers and investors. Its educational offerings include a monthly magazine, annual conferences and tradeshows, an extensive website, the ISS Store, and Self-Storage Talk, the industry’s largest online community.

Real estate developer Peter Issa is in the final stages of acquiring a half-acre property in Barbican, Kingston, Jamaica, on which he intends to build a self-storage facility. The $600,000 project will offer storage containers configured into units from 25 to 320 square feet, and could be open by September, according to the source.

“Just visualize 40-foot and 20-foot containers positioned around a half-acre lot. I’m going to section them off and then have loading docks,” Issa told the source. A 40-foot container can be split into five separate units, he said.

The entrepreneur plans to target residential and business customers, with units available for rent on a monthly and annual basis. Additional locations will be considered “depending on how this one does,” Issa said.

Strategic Storage Growth Trust Inc. (SSGT), a public, non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on self-storage acquisition and development, has agreed to a certificate of occupancy contract to acquire a ground-up development in the South Mountain Village area of Phoenix for $7 million. The facility at 1500 E. Baseline Road will comprise approximately 81,000 net rentable square feet. The project is scheduled to break ground this quarter and expected to open during the second quarter of 2016, according to a press release.

Local real estate developer Glacier Development intends to build a two-story facility on the property comprising 800 traditional storage units and about 30 covered spaces for RVs, the release stated. Approximately 80 percent of the units will be climate-controlled.

“We are excited to enter into our first contract for a certificate of occupancy transaction for a top-of-the-line, brand-new facility in a prime market like Phoenix,” said H. Michael Schwartz, chairman and CEO of SSGT. “Our investment strategy is to continue to work with regional developers on certificate of occupancy opportunities located throughout the United States.”

“We are embracing certificate of occupancy transactions because they eliminate many development risks and allow us to focus on the operations and the lease-up of the facilities,” added Wayne Johnson, senior vice president of acquisitions for SSGT.

SSGT is an entity related to SmartStop Self Storage Inc., which is under agreement to be acquired by Extra Space Storage Inc. Under terms of the SmartStop deal, Extra Space will manage assets owned by SSGT and affiliate Strategic Storage Trust II Inc., a public, non-traded REIT specializing in stabilized properties. SmartStop has served as the sponsor, adviser and property manager for both entities.

SSGT focuses on the acquisition, development, redevelopment and lease-up of self-storage properties. Its portfolio currently consists of nine storage facilities in five states comprising approximately 700,200 net rentable square feet in 6,620 units.

Access Storage, a locally owned and managed self-storage company based in Ferdinand, Ind., has opened a new facility in Newburgh, Ind. Located at 3644 Indiana 261, just south of Castle High School, the newly build property includes standard and temperature-controlled units.

Like the company’s Budd Road facility in Corydon and St. Charles Street facility in Jasper, the Newburgh location features a 24-hour service kiosk that allows customers to rent units, buy a lock or make rental payments. Other amenities include extended phone hours for customer support, gated entry, and online account management and billpay.

The Newburgh site is Access Storage’s ninth overall location and the fifth to be acquired or built by the company in the past four years, according to the source.

"We are energized by the opportunity to expand our operations in Newburgh," said Chris Tretter, partner. "We have done our due diligence in analyzing market research, exceeding industry standards and providing great customer care. Now is the time to implement what we have learned and poise our business for future growth."

Access Storage, now in business more than 25 years, also has locations in Corydon (2), Dale, Ferdinand (2), Huntingburg and Jasper (2), Ind. The company is currently adding 9,700 square feet of temperature-controlled units and expanding outdoor parking at its St. Charles Street location in Jasper. There are also plans in place for a major addition at the Budd Road location in Corydon, which will see an additional 16,435 square feet of standard and 7,400 square feet of temperature-controlled units.

It’s not uncommon for a self-storage operator to open a delinquent or abandoned unit and discover the tenant has left behind boxes of business files. To properly foreclose on the unit, you must proceed under the state’s applicable self-storage law. Follow this advice to legally and correctly dispose of the records and reclaim your space. We’ll first address the issue of delinquent units, then abandoned units.

Delinquent Units

Dealing with business files found in delinquent storage units is completely different from a scenario in which an individual tenant has stored his own personal files in a storage space. Storage operators have no specific duty to private customers who assume the risk of loss to their own files. Those units are subject to sale and, if not purchased, public disposal. Again, when a tenant puts his own property at risk, the operator has no obligation to treat those unit contents any differently than other personal property.

The significant issue is when the tenant is a business storing records for its customers or a licensed professional (accountant, doctor, insurance agent, lawyer, mortgage broker, etc.) storing client or patient files. These are considered third-party records. It’s in these situations that you must be ready to handle the files differently from those found in a typical delinquent unit.

The concern about third-party records has been addressed via changes to some state self-storage laws over the last few years. For example, in Arizona and Nevada, operators are now required to include a provision in their rental agreements whereby tenants disclose if they’re storing any “protected property,” which is defined as “documents, film or electronic data that contain personal information, such as Social Security numbers, credit or debit card information, bank-account information, passport information, and medical and legal records relating to clients, customers, patients or others in connection with an occupant’s business.”

Pursuant to these state laws, if a tenant indicates that such items are being stored and he later falls into default, the operator must do several things before going to lien sale. First, he must contact the tenant in an effort to return the property. Next, he must reach out to any additional contacts listed in the rental agreement. If he can’t reach those people, the operator can contact “any appropriate state or federal authorities, including, without limitation, any appropriate governmental agency, board or commission listed by the occupant in the rental agreement … ascertaining whether such authorities will accept the protected property and, if such authorities will accept the protected property, ensuring that the protected property is delivered to such authorities.”

Only after those efforts are taken without result is the operator then permitted to destroy the protected property, “in an appropriate manner which is authorized by law and which ensures that any confidential information contained in the protected property is completely obliterated and may not be examined or accessed by the public.”

Abandoned Units

Using these laws as a strong guideline for any third-party records in an abandoned storage unit, operators are encouraged to use the same basic steps listed above. First, do everything possible to locate the tenant or his emergency or alternate contacts to simply return the records. Next, contact state or federal agencies for assistance. Finally, have the documents shredded or otherwise “obliterated” so they don’t fall into the hands of any parties who might wrongfully use the information.

Certainly, this removes the option of simply dumping the files. They must be destroyed by legal means. The reason shredding is commonly suggested (other than the fact that it obliterates the records) is the storage operator can secure a receipt or some “proof” that he has turned over the records to a reputable vendor to manage the destruction. He’s then released from possible liability if the vendor fails to properly dispose of the documents.

There are even states that address the issue of abandoned third-party records by profession. The law in North Carolina specifically provides that if a lawyer improperly abandons his client’s files, the self-storage operator must first contact the North Carolina State Bar before the records are destroyed. Under this law, the state bar can directly take possession of the records without a court order. This approach would be consistent with the same one referenced in the Arizona and Nevada laws in which the operator is required to contact state agencies for assistance.

Whereas the state bar is the proper agency for lawyers, you can contact your state medical board for medical records and the state board of accountancy for accounting records. As is likely true in most states, if your defaulting tenant is licensed by the state, you can go to that licensing board for help. If the tenant is one of their professional licensees, they have the right to potentially revoke the business license for failing to protect and maintain customer information.

Each delinquent or abandoned unit offers its own story and set of challenges. Finding business records in the space is just one situation in which you must move carefully through the notification and disposal process in lieu of sale. Although the property can’t ultimately be sold, proceed through the lien-sale process and provide all notices required by statute before the records are removed or destroyed. Only after the tenant or any governmental agency fails to reclaim the property can the records be demolished.

Scott Zucker is a partner in the law firm Weissmann Zucker Euster Morochnik P.C. in Atlanta, where he specializes in business litigation with an emphasis on real estate, landlord-tenant and construction law. He’s a speaker at industry events, author of “Legal Topics in Self Storage: A Sourcebook for Owners and Managers,” and a partner in the Self Storage Legal Network, a subscription-based legal service for storage owners and managers. To reach him, call 404.364.4626; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.wzlegal.com.

StoreLocal Corp., a co-op of private self-storage operators in Canada and the United States, has released a whitepaper discussing technological evolution in the industry and how it has shaped today’s market. “Cabs, Corn and Cubes: What’s Next in the Evolution of the Self Storage Industry?” includes results from a four-year study examining advantages leveraged by real estate investment trusts and venture-capital disruptions, according to a press release.

“Recent technological changes in the self-storage industry have left many operators unprepared to meet new consumer expectations,” company officials said in the release. “StoreLocal's latest whitepaper explores the possible commoditization caused by the new technology, past phases that created today's environment, and strategies operators can use to adapt and differentiate their companies.”

Report topics include adapting to changing consumer expectations, investing in technology, and strategies to compete under current market conditions, among others.

“StoreLocal is a transparent operation, and we wanted to share what we’ve learned during the last four years with the industry,” said Lance Watkins, CEO. “If the whitepaper accomplished only a couple things—getting operators to look at renters as customers and technology as an investment—then ultimately, we were successful.”

The 18-page PDF report can be downloaded from the StoreLocal website.

StoreLocal leverages the combined strength of its membership for services such as customer acquisition, financing, marketing and technology. The co-op acquired online self-storage directories StorageFront.com and SelfStorageHounds.com in January.