Big Players Consolidating Self-Storage

MINNEAPOLIS—Profound changes within the self-storage industry has it much more profitable for large companies that can use their size to drive up occupancy and boost revenue. As a result, the industry has experienced a great deal of consolidation over the past few years as big operators across the nation bought up many of the Mom-and-Pop owners. A perfect example of this phenomenon was the recent purchase for $22 million of a four-property storage portfolio in the Minneapolis region by a joint venture between Lake Forest, IL-based Metro Storage and Chicago-based Heitman.

“These were Mom-and-Pop owners and even though the properties were stabilized, they did not have the economics of scale, the Internet presence or the revenue management techniques to reach full potential,” Marc Boorstein, a principal of Chicago-based MJ Partners Real Estate Services, tells GlobeSt.com. He and MJ Partners principal Jeff Jacobson represented all parties in the transaction.