Hines, a Houston-based firm specializing in global real estate development, investment and property management, has entered the European self-storage market with the acquisition of a three-property portfolio in England. Located in Ashford, Chatham and Ebbslee, the facilities will be managed and branded by Storage King, which operates 43 locations in the U.K. Together, they offer 1,449 units, according to the source.
“The nascent U.K. self-storage sector is propelled by long-term demographic and consumer trends likely to drive increased demand in the years to come, particularly in densely populated commuter towns in the South-East of England,” said Greg Cooper, managing director and head of U.K. industrial and logistics.
“In self-storage, especially in the U.K., we see rising, unmet demand meeting highly constrained supply,” added Paul White, senior managing director. “This is the right moment to channel time and effort into aggregating a meaningful, high-performing platform as an agent of the inevitable consolidation in the space. We’re excited to see where this theme can take us in the U.K. and beyond.”
Founded in 1957, Hines is a privately owned company with a presence in 30 countries. It has approximately $93.2 billion of assets under management and 177 development projects underway around the world. The firm’s current management portfolio comprises about 270 million square feet.
