Boombox Inc., a startup specializing in valet self-storage services in the San Francisco Bay Area, has launched a “Storing Hope” initiative designed to raise money for homeless shelters in the region. Customers who move their belongings from a traditional self-storage facility to Boombox can designate their first month of rent to go to the homeless shelter of their choosing, according to the company website.

The company’s fundraising goal is to collect $100,000 in donations by the end of next year. Customers who don’t specify a shelter when beginning service will have their rent sent to the San Francisco homeless shelter operated by the St. Anthony Foundation.

Boombox founder Calvin Hemington views valet storage as a better alternative to self-storage in part because the company uses commercial warehouse space to store customer belongings rather than real estate that could potentially be used for affordable housing. San Francisco’s homeless population is estimated at 7,500, with 3,146 living in shelters, according to a January census. City officials conduct a count every two years.

“We thought we could free up premium real estate in the city for better uses, such as homeless shelters or low-income housing,” Hemington told the source. “And at the same time, we could offer a better service for those who currently use self-storage.” A statement on the company website indicates Hemington’s ultimate goal is to “convert current self-storage facilities into low-income housing or homeless shelters.”

While most valet-storage operators have concentrated on by-the-bin storage and delivery services, Boombox launched in February with a storage-space model based on the size of its transport vans. The company estimates the space inside the van is about equal to a 50-square-foot self-storage unit. Customers who fill the van with boxes and oversized individual items pay $115 per month, according to the website. The monthly rental fee is $75 if a customer fills only half the van. Boombox requires a minimum three-month stay. Customers must request a two-person pickup team for stored items that weigh up to 100 pounds. Initial pickup service is normally free, but the two-person service costs $35.

Customer belongings are stored in a secure warehouse in Tracy, Calif., about 60 miles east of San Francisco. Customers aren’t allowed to visit the facility. Boombox staff members code and photograph items that will be stored. Renters can then manage their belongings online and schedule items for return delivery for a flat fee of $20 per van load. The company requests deliveries be scheduled 48 hours in advance. Pickups to return delivered items back to the warehouse are assessed a flat fee of $25, according to the website.

The Boombox service area includes 15 cities within the Bay Area, stretching from Berkeley to south of San Jose. “We see ourselves as a hassle-free alternative to self-storage,” Hemington told the source. “Our model makes the most sense for people who see storage as an extension of their garage or closet.”

The company launched with private funds and isn’t seeking venture capital, according to the source. It joins a growing list of valet-storage operators in the Bay Area, including Brute Storage, Closetbox, Clutter, Omni and Trove Technologies Inc.

Rental rates for self-storage units in California have increased more than 26 percent since 2014, according to data released by SpareFoot, an online marketplace for self-storage consumers. The average monthly rate across the state for a unit this year is $114, a bump of $9 (8.5 percent) from last year. By comparison, rates grew 11 percent in 2015 and 6 percent last year.

Rates across the state were mostly stable through the Great Recession to 2014 due to slow development activity. Since then, steady rate increases have coincided with population growth, the report states. Though development of new storage facilities in California has increased, the number of new units coming online has lagged behind demand due to high barriers to entry in many municipalities.

Among the state’s largest metropolitan areas, Los Angeles had the largest year-over-year price increase, jumping from an average rate of $135 in 2016 to $156 this year. Though Long Beach had steep price increases between 2014 and 2016, its average rental rate fell from $134 in 2016 to about $127 this year. Other cities showing steady price growth include Riverside, Sacramento and San Diego.

The data released by SpareFoot echoes state figures from the August Self Storage Rent Index issued this week by Storage Seeker. Modesto, Calif., posted the largest rate increase in the nation last month at 15.5 percent. Among the top 10 growth markets, six were in California.

SpareFoot.com helps consumers find and reserve self-storage units, with comparison shopping tools that show real-time availability and exclusive deals. With a network of more than 12,000 storage facilities ranging from mom-and-pop operations to real estate investment trusts, the company reaches prospective storage renters though partnerships with brands including SelfStorage.com and Penske Truck Rental.

A man in Durango, Colo., was the victim of a carjacking at gunpoint on Monday evening while visiting a self-storage facility. The victim told police he was organizing his unit at Bodo Park Mini Storage at 171 Sawyer Drive when he was approached by five men. One of the suspects brandished a handgun before they all fled in the victim’s car, according to the source.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Durango Police Department.

Bodo Park Mini Storage is managed by Durango Property Management Inc. The company also oversees Downtown Security Storage and rental vacation homes in the city.

The city-county planning commission of Warren, Ky., last week recommended approving a zoning amendment that would allow the construction of a self-storage facility and convenience store in Alvaton, an unincorporated community in Warren. Property owners L.S. and Shelia Cherry plan to develop the 3.6-acre parcel at Alvaton, Old Scottsville and Isbell Roads. The storage facility would consume 2 acres, while the remaining acreage would be used for an IGA or Huck’s Convenience Store with up to four gas pumps, according to the source.

The eight commissioners unanimously voted to approve the application during the Sept. 8 meeting despite opposition from some residents. The area is currently zoned for highway business with a Future Land Use Map designation of “Rural Village,” the source reported. Under the current zoning, development on the site is also restricted to less than 6,000 square feet of space unless the property is connected to a sanitary sewer.

In his application, L.S. Cherry noted the sewer is now available. He also stated nearby residential developments, including Olde Stone and September Lakes, have added economic and physical changes to the area. “This growth in the Alvaton area requires additional supportive development such as fuel, groceries and self-storage to accommodate the additional population,” the application stated. During the meeting, Cherry also argued the project fits with the Rural Village designation.

Resident Brian Holton disagreed. Although he told the commissioners he didn’t have a problem with the self-storage aspect of the development, the convenience store would create a traffic hazard and damage the area’s rural appeal. “We feel that it’s not compatible with the Rural Village designation,” he said. “Huck’s is the ugliest of the convenience stores and would have fluorescent lights on all night. It doesn’t fit the neighborhood.”

Holton was joined in his dissension by fellow resident Jeff Salings, who lives on Old Scottsville Road.

No further information about the development plans is available at this time.

 

By Kevin Edwards

With all the things we do as self-storage managers, facility maintenance is one thing that rarely gets noticed—unless it isn’t done. Broken or missing door handles, dysfunctional light fixtures, faded or peeling paint, dirty and dusty roll-up doors, beat-up push carts, or a generally unkempt property can really make a bad impression on customers. These are the kinds of details people only seem to notice when they’re subpar, even though they should be attended to every day.

The best way to prevent minor problems from becoming major ones is to pay attention. First, walk your storage property and really look at it. Try to imagine yourself as a new or potential customer. Would you rent here? As you review the site, do the following.

Keep It Clean

Walk the perimeter of your property, around your parking lots and roadside entrances, and pick up any trash. There should never be any cans, bottles or wrappers floating around. Try doing this twice a day.

Also check hallways, floors and doors. Clean, swept and mopped hallways mean you were there and you were paying attention, not only to stuff on the floor, but everything else. Carry a broom and dust pan whenever you leave the office. Depending on the type of doors you have, find a dusting brush or tool that works well on the nooks and crannies. Over-the-counter cleaning products usually work well, just be sure to spray the brush, not the door.

Look for Pests

Always watch for signs of pest intrusion. Check the ceiling insulation for holes, and look for scraps of insulation, food, paper or siding material on the floor. These are signs of rodent nesting and activity. If you see any of this, talk to your pest-control vendor. Don’t wait, as ridding your property of pests can be time-consuming and costly.

Even if you have a pest-control contractor who visits your site once or twice per month, add some pest spray around the edges of each space upon tenant move-out. This will help prevent critters from creeping into units.

Make Sure the Lights Work

Outside lights should be checked and replaced at least twice per month. If you offer 24/7 access to customers, then check and replace them every week. Timers should be working properly. Emergency lights should be tested at full capacity at least once per month by shutting down power to the building for about 10 minutes. (You can always just poke the little button on it as you walk past every morning, too.) Your local fire marshal will probably ask you to keep a record of these tests, so make a file.

Check Other Items

There are many other systems and items to monitor. Here are a few big ones:

HVAC system. Check this every month. Service contracts are great, but they can only do so much. Ask your HVAC technician what kind of cleaning solution you can safely use for the drainage lines and the best way to apply it. Keep notes on temperature settings and filter sizes.

Batteries. Check water levels in the batteries for your golf carts and security gates. A cheap voltage meter is helpful, too, just to ensure they’re charging correctly.

Paint. Painting can be fun—really! Try to make a day of it. Repaint your parking stripes, curbs and bollards as needed. Exterior areas should be touched up as soon as you have the chance, just because they’re more visible to passersby. You may even need to repaint your floors. Our property has painted floors in the hallways and units. We touch up the hallways every so often and completely redo them every year.

Signage. Paint or replace signs as necessary. Attack them with a broom to remove cobwebs or bug nests. Do this to your outside light packs about once per week. Insects love to gather around these things and just hang out. Small static mops work well for this.

Gutters and downspouts. These can be a headache. Backed-up gutters can lead to roof leaks and structural damage from water getting into the walls. Check these twice per month and clean them out as needed. You may have to do this more often if you have a rainy season like we do in South Carolina.

Trees and bushes. If you have a lot of greenery on your property, try to keep it from encroaching on your buildings or growing through your fences. You also need to keep them out of the gutters and building seams where they could cause leaks. Hedge trimmers and a weed whacker should suffice for this task. If you have a landscaper or any tenants who work in this field, ask about chemical treatments to keep plants from taking over.

Get Support When You Need It

When it comes to maintenance, your tenants can be among your biggest allies. You probably have a few electricians, carpenters or plumbers renting from you who’d be happy to walk you through a simple task such as changing out a light fixture or replacing a broken door handle. Online do-it-yourself videos can also be a huge help.

Keep track of these tasks and any others that may be unique to your property via checklists or a manager’s log. Date and initial everything so everyone knows when it was completed and by whom. We have three checklists at our facility: daily, monthly and yearly. All of them include task descriptions and blank spaces for initials and dates.

When and if you have a service technician stop by for a repair, pay attention to what he does and ask him to walk you through it. It could save you both a headache—and some money—in the future. If it’s a simple enough task, it could be done in-house rather than waiting for a tech to show up and turn a screw. Then you don’t run the possibility of having the problem escalate to a major repair.

Of course, there are some things that can’t and absolutely shouldn’t be done by managers, regardless of their experience. Hire licensed, bonded and insured professionals to handle any major electrical, plumbing or construction work. These folks have the proper experience and training to prevent a small repair job from becoming a major undertaking; and then any damage resulting from a botched repair won’t come out of your pocket. It’s not worth risking your own safety or job for something you’ve never done but have seen someone else do “a hundred times.” By using a professional, your business is protected if something should go awry.

I could write a small book on this subject, but I hope I’ve covered enough of the basics to give you an idea of how maintaining your facility will help your business, keep your tenants happy and entice new customers. When it comes to maintenance, everything else should be common sense. If it’s right, it’s right. If it’s not, fix it!

Kevin J. Edwards is part of the management team at Plantation Storage in Bluffton, S.C., operated by Southeast Management Co. He can be reached at 843.815.8000; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.southeastmanagementcompany.com.

Sleiman Enterprises, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based real estate firm that specializes in the development and management of shopping centers in Florida and Southeast Georgia, has submitted a proposal to rezone 2.34 acres in Jacksonville with the intent of building a self-storage facility. The Kernan Self Storage planned-unit development (PUD) would be constructed at 11900 Atlantic Blvd. It would include a multi-story climate-controlled building and four additional storage structures comprising up to 6,000 square feet each, according to the source.

Sleiman owns the property southwest of Atlantic and Kernan Boulevards through its affiliate Property Management Support Inc., the source reported. The interchange area could be built with up to 2 million square feet of retail uses, according to the PUD notes. The site is just west of a Walmart Supercenter and shares the intersection with a BJ’s Wholesale Club, an LA fitness gym, a hotel, and other restaurant and retail uses.

The rezoning ordinance would amend the city’s 2030 comprehensive plan and change the land-use designation to a business park from a combination of institutional, professional and residential uses. The property was intended to serve as a transition between commercial services and residential development, according to the source.

The Jacksonville Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss the rezoning proposal on Thursday.

Founded in 1955, Sleiman is a private real estate services firm that offers construction, design, development, leasing and property management, with an emphasis in retail centers. It operates a portfolio of 5 million square feet of retail space, according to the company website.

Jerome “Jerry” Gottesman, the co-founder of New Jersey-based real estate development firm Edison Properties and New York-based self-storage operator Manhattan Mini Storage, died of natural causes on Sept. 10. He was 87.

Gottesman fell ill during a recent trip to Jerusalem with his wife, Paula, according to a statement from his family. “Jerry was a towering figure in both physical stature and as a leader of our family, the Jewish and Newark, N.J., philanthropic communities and Edison Properties, the business that he co-founded in 1956 with his late brother Harold,” the family said. “Jerry was admired by those who knew him, and he cared deeply about those who worked for him.”

Gottesman started his real estate career with one Newark parking lot in 1956. Today, Edison ParkFast is a network of 40 garages and lots throughout Baltimore, New York City and Northeast New Jersey. Manhattan Mini was founded in 1978 and today operates 17 self-storage facilities throughout New York City. Edison’s other holdings include workspace offices, executive offices and pre-built suites, The Hippodrome office building, and The Ludlow, a luxury residential high-rise on NYC’s Lower East Side.

The Edison portfolio includes 3 million square feet in Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y., and “several” million square feet in Newark, Baltimore and other cities, according to the company website. The firm currently employs about 600 people.

“Jerry took immense pride in the business that he began with his brother, Harold, which has grown and sustained his family, his community, and the hundreds of families whose extraordinary contributions have made it so successful. The business will continue to honor Jerry’s legacy,” according to the family’s statement. “As a family, we cherish and honor Jerry’s passion for Edison, its employees and its customers, and we are committed to protecting his legacy for years to come.”

“We will miss Jerry dearly and deeply appreciate all that he has done for Edison Properties during his lifetime,” company officials said in a statement. “This business is his legacy, and we are all honored to have been able to work with him and learn from him. While his presence and influence will be missed, the company will continue to operate as usual and continue to focus on honoring his memory.”

Gottesman served as company chair until his death. A succession plan previously established by Edison directed the firm be run by its executive management team, according to a source.

Gottesman was also a noted philanthropist to the Jewish community in New Jersey. Among the donations he and his wife gave through the Paula and Jerry Gottesman Family Supporting Foundation were a $5 million grant in 2013 to help the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ create a community-based Jewish camp program and a $15 million “challenge grant” in 2014 to the Hebrew Academy of Morris County as part of a capital and endowment campaign, according to a source. The academy subsequently changed its name to the Gottesman RTW Academy and was scheduled to host Gottesman’s funeral on Tuesday.

The Gottesmans also supported the launch of Lifetown, a Livingston, N.J.-based center that serves individuals with special needs. In 2015, the Gottesman foundation gave a $10 million grant to four Jewish day schools in New Jersey to attract new students and freeze tuition for 10 years, a source reported. The couple has also given more than $500,000 to PJ Library, an organization that provides free books and educational materials to young Jewish families around the world.

At the time of his death, Gottesman’s net worth was estimated at more than $550 million, according to an Edison spokesperson, who told a source he left a “substantial” portion of his estate to charity.

He is survived by Paula, his wife of 55 years; four daughters; 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A shuttered veterinary hospital in Coconut Creek, Fla., could soon be turned into a mixed-use development that would include a self-storage facility and a pet lodge. Leder Hillsboro Co. filed an application with the city for the 7.62-acre property it owns at 4171 and 4181 W. Hillsboro Blvd. The planning and zoning board is scheduled to vote on the proposal today, according to the source.

Situated between Lyons Road and Florida’s Turnpike, the site includes a 10,000-square-foot building that once housed VCA Veterinary Hospital. Leder Hillsboro plans to demolish that structure as well as an existing kennel to build a 120,000-square-foot storage facility. The company will also construct a 15,000-square-foot pet lodge containing hundreds of large kennels. An existing 37,917-square-foot office on the property would remain but undergo renovations to the façade, the source reported.

Designed by Kenneth Carlson - Architect P. A., Gutierrez & Lozano Architects, and Keith & Associates Inc., the property will contain 170 parking spaces, two fountains and artificial turf fronting the street.

Leder Hillsboro is managed by Samuel Leder of Leder Corp. of Boca Raton, Fla.    

Craig Smith, an attorney who owns property-development firm Brookwood-Riverside LLC, plans to tear down a former coffee shop in downtown Baton Rouge, La., and build a three-story self-storage facility in its place. The property will be managed by CubeSmart, a self-storage real estate investment trust and third-party management company, and branded under its name. It’ll be the first climate-controlled storage facility in the area, according to the source.

Smith purchased the Community Coffee Co. roasting facility at 2151 N. Third St. for $775,000 in August. Just north of the Louisiana State Capitol building, the nearly 2.3-acre site contains an 80-year-old structure that had been vacant for two years, the source reported. “You hate to tear down an old building, but it was functionally obsolete,” said Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate, the broker who represented Smith in the transaction.

The site’s location near new residential complexes made it attractive for self-storage development, Hebert said. “There isn’t any competition in the downtown market for something like this, and as downtown continues to grow with more residents, people are going to be looking for places to store their things. Also, a lot of offices need climate-controlled storage for their files, so it makes sense to be as close to downtown as you get.”

The seller was represented by Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate.

Smith is also CEO of Brookwood Properties, which operates 39 self-storage facilities under the CubeSmart and The Storage Center brands. The company has properties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. A new location is under construction in Prairieville, La., according to Hebert.

Malvern, Pa.-based CubeSmart owns or manages 868 self-storage facilities across the United States. Its operating portfolio comprises 58.7 million square feet.

 

Self-storage rental rates declined an average of 1 percent across the United States in August, according to the monthly Self Storage Rent Index maintained by Storage Seeker, an online self-storage directory and price aggregator. The decline marked the end of five consecutive months of rate growth dating back to March, according to a press release.

The index displays the percent increase or decrease in prices for the top 50 “major markets.” Jefferson, La., in the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) showed the largest average decline in August at 21 percent, while units in Modesto, Calif., posted the largest increase at 15.5 percent.

After Jefferson, the top five cities showing price reductions were Plymouth, Mass. (8.8 percent); St Louis (6.8 percent); Oakland, Calif. (6.6 percent); Nashville, Tenn. (5.6 percent); and Raleigh, N.C. (5.5 percent). All other cities in the top 50 had declines of less than 5 percent, with half below 2 percent.

The largest price increases behind Modesto were Corona, Calif. (9.7 percent); Lexington, S.C. (7.1 percent); Fontana, Calif. (5.8 percent); and San Francisco (4.8 percent). Among the top 10 growth markets, six were in California. In the top 50, 28 cities posted average rate increases below 2 percent and 10 markets indicated no increase at all.

Launched in December, the index tracks self-storage rent changes at same-store units in more than 3,000 cities across the nation, according to the company.

Based in Dover, Del., StorageSeeker.com allows consumers to compare self-storage unit prices at different facilities, while also providing some discounted rental rates or move-in specials when a unit is reserved online, according to the release.