Bahrain-based Al Khaleej Development Co. (Tameer) has begun construction on a $15 million self-storage project called Takhzeen. It is the first project of its kind in Bahrain and the largest in scale in the Middle East. The project broke ground last month on a 20,000-square-meter parcel that will contain two buildings and yield 1,600 units. Construction time is projected at 10 months.

Tameer established Takhzeen Warehousing & Storage Co. as a closed Bahraini shareholding company in a strategic alliance with Kuwait-based Al Muthana Investment Co. and Al Khawari Group, with an authorized capital of $50 million and a paid-up capital of $10 million.

Takhzeen will develop, manage and operate self-storage facilities for domestic and business use starting in Bahrain and expanding the concept in the Gulf Corporation Council and the Middle East.

Takhzeen is an immediate translation of Tameer's new investment strategy to diversify its investment portfolio into value-added and alternative real estate projects, according to Tameer CEO Laith Al Memar.

In the short term, the strategic direction for Takhzeen involves tapping into various sectors of the warehousing and logistics industry and expanding regionally to enhance the company's business plan and diversify its revenue streams, said Murad Al Ramadan, deputy chief executive and head of investments of Tameer and managing director of Takhzeen.

By Heather Lutze

Most people know Facebook as a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, and to reconnect with long-lost childhood classmates. But theres another side to Facebook, one that can help your business grow.

According to Facebook, more than 1.5 million local businesses have active pages, and more than 20 million people become fans of pages each day. For business owners, this means Facebook is definitely a way to spread your companys message, build community and loyalty among customers, and ultimately increase your companys revenue.

If youve only used Facebook for personal reasons, making the jump to a business application can seem challenging. The following suggestions will help you create a business Facebook presence that generates results.

Distinguish Your Facebook Person and Persona

Ask yourself these two important questions: Who am I as a person outside of my business? This is your person. Who am I as a business owner/manager on Facebook? This is your persona. Can you combine the two identities? Absolutely not! If you already have a personal Facebook page you use to keep up with friends and family, keep it personal. Dont mix your business contacts into that page.

Rather, build a new Facebook profile as the owner or manager of Company XYZ. This is your business persona page. You can even name it John W. Smith, CEO and Founder of Acme Corp. Add your business bio and other information that pertains to your role in the companythe persona of you as an owner/manager. Then you can build a Fan Page off of that personal profile that talks specifically about the business.

Mixing your personal and business pages is discrediting and unprofessional. And yes, its perfectly fine to have two profiles on Facebook. Youd simply have to use your middle initial or some other distinguishing information to differentiate the two accounts.

Name Your Accounts Wisely

While your individual posts on Facebook are not ranked in Google searches (at least not yet), your profile is ranked. Simply go to your settings tab in Facebook and elect to make your profile public. How you name your business persona page and fan page is critical for ranking purposes.

While youd certainly use your name for your individual business account and your company name for your fan page, youll want to tag some keywords onto each name. For example, if you want to be known as a leader in Internet marketing, you might name your business profile John W. Smith, Internet Marketing Strategist. Similarly, you could name your fan page in such a way that theres no question what your company does, as in Acme Corp., Widget Supplier and Manufacturer.

Think of the keywords you want to be found under and work them into your tagline or title. This strategy gets your profile open to the world and helps you go beyond just building a Facebook community of friends and fans. Now youre opening your company up to a bigger community outside of Facebook.

Post Appropriate Content

Once your pages are set up, encourage your current customers to join your fan page. Anything that happens with the business such as specials, new products or services youre offering, any new company developments you want people to know about, or anything related to the company as a whole, would appear on the fan page. People read those posts and monitor what your company is doing or offering and then invite others to become fans.

As for your business persona pagethe page focused on you as the owner or managerhere youd post information about conferences youre attending, your thoughts on the industry or company, and business things related to you personally. For example, maybe you won an award or published an article. Talk about these types of things on your business persona page.

Additionally, on your business persona page, youd only put out and accept friend requests from people who directly relate to your business. If one of your personal friends finds the page and offers a friend request, direct that individual to your personal page. Realize that while you can control whom you befriend, you have no control over who becomes a fan of your companys fan page. People become fans because theyre interested in your topic.

Also, its OK to have ads, coupons and specials for your company on your fan page. In fact, fan pages were designed as a way to give businesses a way to promote their company without getting people upset. However, dont put ads, coupons or specials on your business persona page. If you do, people will quickly start un-friending you. 

Finally, remember to feed your Twitter posts, blog posts and YouTube videos directly to your fan page so you can extend your brand. You can do all this dynamically by using a tool such as Ping.fm or SocialOomph.com.

Build Community and Profit

With more than 500 million active users on Facebook, this is one place you definitely want your company to be seen. The key is for clients, prospects and the Facebook community at large to see your business in the most positive light possible. By keeping your business and personal information separate, building your pages professionally, and posting relevant content your audience will want to read, you can create powerful relationships on Facebook that positively impact your companys bottom line.

Heather Lutze has spent the last 10 years as CEO of The Findability Group, formerly Lutze Consulting, a search-engine marketing firm that works with companies to attain maximum Internet exposure. Shes also an author and speaker. For more information, visit www.findabilitygroup.com .

A man in Terre Haute, Ind., pled guilty last week to 21 counts of burglary at a self-storage facility and another count from a previous case.

Ebb Howard and his wife Heather were arrested in 2009 for stealing items from self-storage units. Police recovered the stolen items in the couples home and at another self-storage facility. The stolen goods included jewelry, collectibles, power tools and other items.

If the court accepts Howards plea, hell be sentenced Oct. 4.

Westy Self Storage of Wilton, Conn., will host a book sale in its grand lobby on Sept. 11, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sept. 12, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., to benefit The Lions Club of Norwalk. The organization will use funds raised for charitable causes including youth and senior programs, eye-screening clinics, and scholarships and eyeglasses for needy children.

Items for sale will include thousands of books, CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, and vintage records. On Saturday, all hard-cover books will cost $1 per bag, and paperbacks, tapes, CDs and records will cost $2 per bag. On Sunday, all items are $1 per bag. The bags will be provided.

Real estate developer Elephant Holding Zrt. opened a new self-storage facility in a district warehouse of Budapest, Hungary, near the airport. The facility comprises 30 18-square-meter units it will rent for 90 per month. The company hopes to attract customers through its excellent access to the M0 beltway. The units are accessible around the clock and are under video surveillance.

A large portion of our clients is expected to come from small businesses requiring an extremely flexible storage service, said Levente Harmat, storage director at Elephant Holding.

AAA Self Storage of Woodland, Calif., is participating in Cell Phones for Soldiers, a cell-phone recycling program that provides overseas troops with prepaid calling cards. Donated phones are sent to ReCellular, which pays enough for each phone to allow a soldier abroad one hour of talk time. Phones can be donated at AAA between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Cell Phones for Soldiers is aiming to turn old cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops. The organization expects to collect 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 3,000 collection sites nationwide.

Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist from Norwell, Mass., with $21 of their own money. Since then, the registered 501c3 non-profit organization has raised almost $2 million in donations and distributed more than 500,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers overseas.

Through increased fundraising efforts, the Bergquist family hopes to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs, such as providing video phones with prepaid service to allow soldiers abroad to see their families on a regular basis.

Australian-based Babcock & Brown sold four of its self-storage facilities in metropolitan Chicago to New York-based W. P. Carey & Co. LLC for $11.8 million. MJ Partners Self Storage Group brokered the sale.

The portfolio consists of 227,665 square feet of rentable self-storage space, 2,230 storage units, and 36,854 square feet of industrial warehouse space. The portfolio was 71% occupied at the time of the sale. Extra Space Storage will maintain third-party management of the properties.

The portfolio generated bids from 14 different parties nationwide, demonstrating renewed interest in the market for income-producing commercial properties, said Marc Boorstein, principal with MJ Partners.

Three of the properties are located in close proximity to Chicagos Midway Airport. The fourth property is in Lincolnshire, Ill.

StoreGuard Company Limited opened MY STORAGE in August in the Jungceylon Shopping Center in Patong, Phuket, Thailand. MY STORAGE is the first state-of-the-art self-storage facility to open in mixed-use development in Thailand.

MY STORAGE offers storage for residential and commercial tenants. The facility is open every day, and offers self-storage units in a variety of sizes. Other amenities include tenant insurance, online payments, and moving and packing supplies.

A fire at a self-storage facility in Tucson, Ariz., has been ruled accidental by fire department investigators.

The blaze at U-Store-It self-storage on Ruthrauff Road near La Cholla Blvd. began about 6 a.m. Two storage units were destroyed and several others were damaged. Firefighters had trouble entering the storage units because the units were locked with round metal locks, which are difficult to remove. Rather than cut the locks, they used a rotary saw to cut open the metal doors.

Fire investigators believe spontaneous combustion from something inside one of the units led to the fire.

A self-storage operator in Brooksville, Fla., has joined forces with other business owners to fight a city fee for fire department services.

Diane Bernick, owner of Broad and Wiscon Self Storage, and other area business owners have pooled together their resources to hire an attorney to fight what they claim are additional taxes.

Fire fees were approved by the Brooksville City Council this summer to offset the fire services paid through the citys general fund. The fees would supply roughly 40 percent of the fire departments $1.6 million budget. During the public hearings, the council agreed to lower the tax rate to minimize the impact. Then three of the five council members backtracked, agreeing to keep the tax levy at last years rate, which would generate $2,517,273. The decision was made after council members agreed to cancel the red light camera program, and lost the potential for hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue.

While it's too late to reverse the fire-assessment fees, the council can choose to lower the tax levy as originally planned. The Brooksville City Council will hold a public hearing Sept. 8.