Jim Davies to Focus on Self-Storage at Belgravia

COSTA MESA, CA-Longtime self-storage finance expert Jim Davies has joined Belgravia Capital as a managing director to focus on finance and advisory services for the company's storage industry clients. Davies, a 28-year industry veteran whose expertise includes both direct lending and structured finance advisory services, tells GlobeSt.com that he will work closely with partner and co-managing director Nik Chillar to grow the self-storage portion of Belgravia's business through what he describes as "a full range of capital stack investment solutions."

Davies says that the focus of Belgravia's business is to be a debt provider for its clients in two forms, as a principal and as an adviser leveraging off of its strategic relationships with capital sources. He says that in today's environment, the debt that is most needed is "friendly rescue capital" and refinancing for maturing loans.

To meet the need for friendly rescue capital, Belgravia has established a New Horizons Fund that will invest in discounted mortgages, both performing and non-performing. It has already closed on $50 million of initial capital for the New Horizons Fund and expects a to close on $50 million more by the end of June, increasing the fund's total to $100 million. With leverage, the fund will then have $200 million of investment capacity.

The New Horizons fund will be able to help borrowers buy back their own loans and then restructure them to provide the borrowers with more time. Belgravia "did the hard work to become an approved FDIC Structured Transaction bidder," Chillar says. He says that the fund will enable Belgravia, on behalf of its clients, to "navigate through the evolving distressed market, show them investment opportunities, capitalize them and, for the right transaction, become their partner."

In addition to the New Horizons fund, Belgravia is in early discussions now with potential capital partners for a storage debt program to provide first mortgage, non-recourse debt for acquisitions and refinancings. Davies—who was formerly both co-founder and an owner of Buchanan Storage Capital and an executive at Belgravia and Finova—notes that Buchanan Storage Capital and Belgravia both partnered in national CMBS programs with leading capital sources, including the first national CMBS storage program in 1993 at Belgravia. He says that the new Belgravia storage debt program will launch "at the right time with the right partner."

For clients who do not fit into either the New Horizons program or the storage debt program when it is launched, Belgravia provides a full slate of advisory services, Davies points out. "We will utilize our 28 years of relationships to provide clients with access to high-net-worth and institutional equity and the debt that is most appropriate for them," he says.

In addition to his duties as an executive in the self-storage finance industry, Davies is the founder and organizer of the annual Storage Owners Summit, now in its sixth year, which is scheduled this year for July 22 at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. This year's program will feature Ron Havner, the vice chairman, president and CEO of Public Storage, as the keynote speaker. The event will be co-hosted by Belgravia Capital and the California Self Storage Association.