CCIM.com
July | August | 2016
GOLD RUSH
B
egun as a niche of multifamily, self-storage has developed its own identity as a highly profi table investment.
While many mom-and-pop businesses still operate in the self-storage arena, real estate investment trusts
and institutional investors from universities to pension funds to the Blackstone Group are snatching up
multiple deals in self-storage facilities, usually for the high end, larger facilities in urban centers.
For example, in December 2015, Storage Pros Management sold 37 properties for $242.5 million to a joint venture
led by an institutional investment fi rm. In another mega-deal, Morningstar Properties and Harrison Street Real
Estate Capital sold 43 of its self-storage facilities for $315 million to the self-storage REIT Public Storage in October
2013. Annually, $2 billion of transactions in self-storage take place.
"Self-storage is the best performing sector of commercial real estate," says C. William Barnhill, CCIM, owner of
As self-storage has evolved into a highly
profi table investment, multiple buyers hunt for
the best properties.
by Sara S. Patterson
Eduard
Lysenko/Thinkstock;
TomasSereda/Thinkstock