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Acquisition Review: Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury

The Deal Recently, Heitman LLC., a global real estate investment management firm, acquired Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury. The investment marks the first acquisition expanding Space Station, a UK self storage platform that a Heitman affiliate acquired in late 2020, and is the platform’s first storage solution in the West Midlands region. Upon acquisition of the property, Heitman plans to complete the remaining lease-up of the asset while converting bulk space into additional conventional self storage units as part of the value proposition of the acquisition. The Facility The asset was purpose-built in…

Kangaroo Self-Storage Appoints Bryan Lee as New Chief Financial Officer

Dundee-founded storage firm Kangaroo Self-Storage has appointed Bryan Lee as its chief financial officer as it accelerates plans for growth as the country starts to come out of lockdown. Mr Lee joins the Board to lead the storage company’s finance and IT function and will be responsible for the mergers and acquisitions strategy and the raising of funding to finance growth. Mr Lee is a chartered accountant with almost 25 years of experience in industry and commerce, who has held leadership positions in publicly quoted, private-equity backed and family-owned businesses.…

Commercial Property: Room for Growth in Self Storage Sector

People decluttering to make space for home offices, a booming property market and the growth of online retailers have all led to the use of self storage space in the UK reaching a record level of 82 per cent of lettable space occupied. This new high coincides with the largest annual increase in occupancy levels since records began in 2004. Revenues of self storage operators increased by 16 per cent annually to £890 million in 2020, as clients retained their services longer due to lockdowns and more enquiries moved online…

Heitman Expands UK’s Oldest Private Self Storage Platform

Heitman LLC (“Heitman”), a global real estate investment management firm, has announced the acquisition of Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury, a high-quality UK self storage asset by an affiliate of Heitman. The investment marks the first acquisition expanding Space Station, a UK self storage platform that a Heitman affiliate acquired in late 2020, and is the platform’s first storage solution in the West Midlands region. The asset was purpose-built in 2016 and comprises approximately 58,000 square feet of net rentable area and is in the final stages of its lease-up. Upon acquisition of…

List Self Storage Expands to United Kingdom

List Self Storage (ListSelfStorage.com; “List”), the premier online platform for connecting buyers and sellers of self storage facilities, development land and conversion opportunities, has launched ListSelfStorage.co.uk to serve the growing property acquisition community in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. List Self Storage is a product of StorTrack, the world’s leading self storage data provider. “The growth in demand in the UK is fueling increased investment and development in self storage, just as it continues to do in the US and elsewhere. List has proven success in connecting buyers and…

Safestore outperforms but challenges may lie ahead

It is not just those selling houses that stand to benefit from a surge in property transactions. Self-storage specialist Safestore (SAFE) outperformed analyst earnings expectations during 2020 as both occupancy and average store rates improved. Closing occupancy stood at 80.8 per cent at the end of October, up from 77.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis the same time the prior year. That included a record fourth-quarter performance in which 228,000 square feet of occupancy was added. Safestore has estimated that UK owner-occupied housing transactions drive around 10-15 per cent…

SELF STORAGE MARKET TRENDS

Well, one thing 2020 taught us was to expect the unexpected… Businesses across all sectors have had to learn to be flexible and adaptable to survive in a volatile, unknown world. The same applies to the self storage industry although according to the annual FEDESSA report, this is a sector that has continued to experience notable growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen some very exciting new sites as well as product innovation and the sector is attracting significant investor interest globally. However, operators also have to deal with many…

Carlyle, Safestore JV buys Dutch self-storage operator Opslag XL

The Carlyle Group and Safestore’s joint venture has invested an undisclosed amount to buy Opslag XL, a self-storage operator with three stores in The Netherlands. Opslag XL’s 75,000sqft portfolio includes two freehold locations in The Hague and Hilversum regions and one short leasehold in Amsterdam. The Carlyle Group has an 80% shareholding in the joint venture which was established in August 2019 via the €540m Carlyle Europe Realty (CER) fund, with the FTSE 250-listed Safestore holding the remaining 20% stake in the venture. This acquisition represents CER’s third add-on acquisition…

Padlock Partners UK Fund I Purchases Cinch Self Storage

Padlock Partners UK Fund I, which operates six facilities in England, acquired Cinch Self Storage in Bicester, a market town northwest of London, for £3,200,000. The three-story facility at 1 Arkwright Road opened in 2018 and comprises 25,000 square feet. Padlock operates facilities in Bicester, Chippenham, Letchworth, Leighton Buzzard, Newmarket and Wimbledon, England. Source