Don Temple Storage U-Store & Lock in Long Beach, Calif., which proclaims to be Southern California’s first self-storage facility, celebrated its 50th anniversary in July. The operator held a community party to commemorate the milestone as well as to honor facility founder Don Temple, who died in 2013 at age 85. View pictures from the event and learn more about Don’s other achievements in this ISS News Desk video.
Real estate developer MS Bardstown Road LLC intends to build a mixed-use project on two historic properties in The Highlands area of Louisville, Ky., that will include self-storage, retail and an Airbnb rental. The company acquired 1300 and 1306 Bardstown Road earlier this year for $950,000. A conditional-use permit is required for the self-storage component, according to the source.
A public hearing to discuss the proposal is scheduled for Thursday, but some residents have already expressed their displeasure. Kristen Millwood, president of the Tyler Park Neighborhood Association, said it is “grossly out of character for the area and not necessary.” The Highlands is known for an eclectic mix of boutiques, nightspots, restaurants and shops.
Regardless of the public feedback MS Bardstown receives this week, it will continue to pursue the self-storage use permit, according to representative Jeff Sleadd, who noted the company could consider various retail uses, such as a restaurant, if it’s economically advantageous. Parking limitations will play a role on what the developer ultimately proposes, he told the source. Acquiring more property nearby is also an option.
Until recently, Sterling Beer planned to develop the two parcels into a brewery and taproom. The sale of the properties was controversial because Sterling acquired both from the city in 2016 for less than their appraised amount. The company pocketed about $525,000 by selling them, the source reported.
It’s not clear from the report if MS Bardstown plans to use the existing structures on the properties for all or some of its proposed uses.
Source:
WFPL, Neighborhood Meeting Next Step in Transforming Canceled Highlands Brewery Location
Store More Mini Storage LLC has opened in Rogersville, Tenn. The property at 1610 E. Main St. is between the local chapter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Rogersville Water Department.
The facility is owned by Philip Henard and his son, Jaden Henard, as well as his sons-in-law, Bobby Joe Hancock and Adam Harris. The men decided to go into business together two years ago to fulfill Philip Henard’s dream of opening a self-storage business after retirement. The younger men oversaw the development and construction of the project, according to the source.
The property includes electronic access, drive-up units, perimeter fencing, video cameras, and a retail center that sells moving and packing supplies. Customer amenities include online billpay and a free lock upon move-in.
Source:
Rogersville Review, Store More Mini Storage Now Open in Rogersville
Phoenix-based U-Haul International Inc., which operates more than 1,300 self-storage facilities across North America and frequently recycles existing structures for its new locations, has purchased the former Athens Plaza shopping center in Athens, Ga., with the intent to convert it to self-storage. The 13.27-acre property at 494 North Ave. is two miles from the University of Georgia, according to a press release.
U-Haul Moving & Storage of North Downtown Athens is currently operating from a temporary showroom, offering moving and packing supplies, towing equipment, trailer and truck rental, and U-Box portable-storage containers. Plans are underway to convert the 134,661-square-foot building into an indoor, climate-controlled facility. Propane sales and hitch installation will also be available.
“Many of the buildings in this part of town were left to become eyesores,” said Rod Tape, president of the U-Haul Co. of Georgia Northeast. “We're eager to be part of the revitalization of this neighborhood. We want to give the city a facility it will be proud of, and serve the residents here for years to come.”
U-Haul recently acquired several properties it will convert to self-storage. It’s also working on current conversion projects and expanding two existing locations.
Established in 1945, U-Haul owns more than 44 million square feet of storage space. The company’s corporate sustainability initiatives, which support infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint, has led to dozens of conversion projects in recent years.
Source:
Markets Insider, Adaptive Reuse of Athens Plaza: U-Haul to Offer Self-Storage to UGA Students
If you’re part of a self-storage facility team, you know it can sometimes be challenging to work cohesively and effectively. From personality clashes to communication gaps to rule-breakers, it can be difficult to build and maintain a united front. One way to create a more positive, productive atmosphere is through team-building. Group activities, friendly competitions and even goal-setting will have your staff coming together for a single cause and help everyone bond.
In a recent thread on Self-Storage Talk, the industry’s largest online community, a member seeks advice on how to inspire a sense of camaraderie in his multi-store organization. The mission is to create a group that communicates, collaborates in reaching goals, and generally helps and supports one another. Get insight and share your own team-building strategies!
SmartStop Asset Management, a diversified real estate company that manages 135 self-storage facilities in Canada and the United States under the SmartStop Self Storage brand, has signed on to sponsor Canada-based junior ice-hockey team Mississauga Steelheads for the 2018-2019 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) season. The company has sponsored the team for the past five seasons, according to a press release.
The new season will run Sept. 21 to March 17. Pre-season exhibition games begin August 31. The Steelheads will compete against 19 other OHL teams comprised of players ages 16 to 21. The OHL is one of three major junior leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, whose season culminates in a tournament for the Memorial Cup.
“We are excited to sponsor the Mississauga Steelheads for their upcoming season, and cheer on a motivated and talented team of young hockey players as they compete for the league playoffs and championship title,” said SmartStop CEO H. Michael Schwartz.
SmartStop operates an 800-unit facility at 3136 Mavis Road in Mississauga. Based in a Ladera Ranch, Calif., the company has approximately $1.5 billion of real estate under management. Its self-storage portfolio comprises nearly 10 million rentable square feet. It’s also the sponsor of Strategic Storage Growth Trust Inc., Strategic Storage Trust II Inc. and Strategic Storage Trust IV Inc., all public non-traded real estate investment trusts focused on self-storage assets.
Source:
PR Newswire, SmartStop Self Storage Sponsors Canada's Mississauga Steelheads for 2018-2019 Ontario Hockey League Season
Public Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT), has expanded its facility in Milpitas, Calif. The company added more than 700 interior, climate-controlled units to the property at 1080 Pecten Court. The site now offers more than 1,200 units. The new building was built on a former vehicle-storage lot between existing structures, according to a press release.
The facility is in Silicon Valley, near Interstate 680. It’s within walking distance of several new apartment and condominium complexes as well as a planned BART station, part of a rapid-transit, public-transportation system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, the release stated.
The REIT also recently opened a new facility in Puyallup, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, and a two-story property in Frisco, Texas.
Based in Glendale, Calif., Public Storage has interests in 2,615 self-storage facilities in 39 states, with approximately 171 million net rentable square feet. Operating under the Shurgard brand name, the company also has 223 facilities in seven European countries, with approximately 12 million net rentable square feet.
Source:
Business Wire, Public Storage Opens New Milpitas Storage Units in California
ARCO/Murray Design Build is serving as general contractor on a 152,000-square-foot self-storage facility in Ridgefield, N.J. The four-story, climate-controlled facility will include a 1,000-square-foot management office. Construction began this month and is expected to be complete in August 2019, according to a press release.
ARCO/Murray is performing architectural, engineering design, permitting, construction and equipment services on the project. Gary Hafen is serving as superintendent, while John Tulloh is project manager, the release stated.
Based in Dallas, ARCO/Murray offers design, build and general-contractor services nationwide. It’s been in business for more than 25 years.
Update 7/24/18 – Union Realtime has also partnered with The William Warren Group (WWG), a privately held real estate company that operates the StorQuest Self Storage brand, to include WWG development projects in the Radius platform.
“Union Realtime is at the forefront of driving the self-storage industry forward with the best datasets and analytics, and we are thrilled to partner with them,” said Timothy Hobin, executive vice president of real estate for WWG, in a released statement. “With the Radius platform, Union Realtime has enabled all participants in the self-storage industry to make informed decisions, and we look forward to accelerating their efforts with our contributions."
“[WWG] is a distinguished industry leader,” noted Sylvester. “They have seen Radius grow from an idea into reality over the last several years, and we are grateful they are contributing to our vision of creating structural change in the quality and consistency of data.”
Founded in 1994 and based in Santa Monica, Calif., WWG acquires, develops and operates more than 145 self-storage facilities in 14 states.
5/31/18 – Self-storage real estate investment trust Life Storage Inc. has partnered with research firm Union Realtime LLC on an initiative to consolidate development data across the self-storage industry. Life Storage will add its development information into Union’s database of more than 2,400 projects. The dataset has been added to version 3 of Union’s Radius Location Intelligence platform, which aggregates information about new self-storage supply, according to a press release.
“We are excited to collaborate with Union Realtime to accelerate the accuracy and transparency of development activity in the self-storage sector,” said Joseph Saffire, chief investment officer at Life Storage. “Union Realtime is at the forefront of creating industry-leading datasets and analytics, and we are excited to partner with them on improving the quality of development data in the Radius platform for the betterment of the industry.”
Radius is an online tool that tracks market demographics, occupancy and rental rates in addition to new and existing self-storage supply. Union considers the addition of Life Storage data a “leap forward” in its reporting capability. “Life Storage is adding valuable real-time knowledge of development activity across the country,” said Cory Sylvester, principal at Union. “This partnership serves as an important step toward a permanent structural change in the quality and consistency of accessible development data.”
Union Realtime uses technology solutions to deliver self-storage data and analysis. Its tracking data is updated daily.
Based in Buffalo, N.Y., Life Storage operates more than 700 self-storage facilities in 28 states under the Life Storage and Uncle Bob’s brands. Its portfolio of owned and managed facilities comprises more than 50 million square feet.
Source:
Medium, Union Realtime Announces Data Partnership with Life Storage
Too many people tell me they want to build a self-storage facility on land they own or have identified because there’s a need for additional storage in the area. And they’re right—about half the time. Unfortunately, that’s not a good enough percentage to move forward with a multi-million-dollar investment. You need more than anecdotal evidence to determine if there’ll be sufficient demand to lease up a new facility.
In the past, doing the legwork to investigate a potential self-storage site was cumbersome. Not that long ago, once a parcel met some basic criteria, a developer would spend days doing additional research before he’d be ready to make a purchase offer or pay for a feasibility study. Fortunately, the emergence of industry data websites has significantly improved the speed by which we can perform initial research on prospective projects. Today, you can conduct a 15-minute, mini demand study to help eliminate parcels you might previously have wasted several hours or days examining.
Though smart developers will still seek professional guidance in deciding whether to move forward on a project, you can save time and money by using new tools to conduct your own preliminary research. Given how easily a mini study can be performed, it should be one of the first things you do. By simply entering an address and identifying a market area, you’re now able to receive the following information and more with a click of the mouse:
Your market area is typically a three-mile radius, particularly in urban locations where there are numerous self-storage facilities. For large metropolitan areas with high population density, it may be smaller. The key is to understand where the demand lies. A mini study can help you hone in on the current state of a market by revealing these three key elements:
Depending on the tool you use, it may automatically show you a three-mile-radius map including all existing facilities and pipeline projects, along with the corresponding population. Some sites also provide the current amount of self-storage square feet per person. This is a nice feature that allows you to quickly determine if an area is saturated or perhaps under supply.
Self-storage demand varies from state to state and even area to area. As a starting point, I like to use 8 square feet per person as a good point of equilibrium. In other words, you want the sum of the existing square footage in the market, plus the amount in the pipeline and your own proposed square footage, to equal 8 square feet per person or less.
It’s extremely important to understand that this figure should be used only as a baseline to compare one area to another and must be refined based on the idiosyncrasies of any given market. For example, some areas in Dallas have double this assumed equilibrium, while parts of New York City have less than half.
In the end, demand isn’t represented solely by square feet per person. Rather, it’s square feet per person where facilities reach occupancy equilibrium (about 90 percent) at acceptable rates. It can’t be determined in a vacuum and must be used in conjunction with a review of existing occupancy and rental rates within a market.
Be careful not to assume that the existence of facilities at high occupancy means there’s a need for more storage. High occupancy in a situation where a traditional 10-by-10 unit is renting for $70 per month isn’t a good sign; on the other hand, that same unit renting for more than $150 would be a positive indicator in many locations. The national Self-Storage Association, along with other resources, have published average rental rates per region, which you can use to determine the norm in your area.
Demand calculations are simple when using a data service that provides population and existing square footage. You’ll have to decide on the market area and what square footage per person is acceptable.
Let’s say your goal is to build 50,000 square feet of self-storage. You go to an industry data website, plug in an address, choose a three-mile radius and discover the following:
If you divide the existing square feet of storage by the population, you get 4.77 square feet per person. Assuming 8 square feet per person is the point of equilibrium, you can now calculate your demand.
If there were no other projects in the pipeline, I’d initially consider this an acceptable location. However, we still need to review other factors, including projects in the pipeline. If there are 97,000 square feet of unmet demand, and 65,000 square feet proposed for development, that leaves only 32,000 square feet of true unmet demand. Unless other factors overrule our maximum goal of 8 square feet per person, this site would be unacceptable.
I recently reviewed a Kmart property in Florida as a potential site for a big-box conversion. The amount of existing self-storage in the area was 7.36 square feet per person, leaving little room for future development. However, a deeper examination revealed there was just .69 square feet of climate-controlled space per person. That makes the location worth further investigation.
Self-storage data websites can also be helpful in looking for available land parcels. A snapshot of existing and planned facilities in a market allows you to see which areas have low storage density. When combined with population heat maps, this information helps you pinpoint the best possible areas for a project.
Mini demand studies are also helpful when considering an existing storage facility for sale. They can help you better understand the possibilities of leasing the facility at higher rental rates.
Industry data tools are a terrific way to speed up the initial demand-review process. Keep in mind they should be used only as a starting place and not as the basis for making your final decision. Dynamics can change rapidly, and some data may be based on certain limiting factors. Nevertheless, they’re an excellent tool for comparing potential sites and helping you determine which are worthy of in-depth investigation by you and your team of experts.
Marc Goodin is president of Storage Authority LLC and the owner of three self-storage facilities that he personally designed, built and manages. He’s been helping others in the industry for more than 25 years. To reach him, call 860.830.6764, e-mail [email protected], visit www.storageauthorityfranchise.com. You can also purchase his books on facility development and marketing in the Inside Self-Storage Store.
