W.P. Carey Grabs Florida Self-Storage

MIAMI—Global net lease REIT W.P. Carey is snapping up Florida self-storage properties. CAP:18, one of its publicly held non-traded REIT affiliates, has acquired two self-storage facilities for $24.6 million.

"In terms of the overall storage investment market, recent reports indicate that over the past two years competition among buyers has caused self-storage values to increase," says WPC managing director Anne Coolidge Taylor. "As we evaluate new investment opportunities, we continue to monitor local market conditions that indicate growth in new self-storage construction in the coming years."

The Florida properties are located in Kissimmee and Saint Petersburg. Financing of the acquisitions totaled $14.5 million.  The new self-storage properties add to WPC's $121 million worth of self-storage acquisitions in 2013 in Florida, California, New York, Hawaii, and Georgia.

"Following on the heels of our robust acquisition volume in 2013, the acquisition of these two properties is a good start to 2014," says Taylor. "Although the solid metrics and income-generating capabilities of self-storage continue to foster competition in the sector, our decade of experience buying self-storage properties combined with our access to capital and depth of capabilities within the space allow us to react quickly to opportunities of all sizes. We are able to structure transactions that meet the needs of private and institutional sellers and close on an efficient and timely basis."

WPC's latest buys are class A facilities in strong Florida markets. The Kissimmee self-storage facility is 83,280 net rentable square feet with 981 units. The St. Petersburg self-storage facility is 85,842 net rentable square feet with 882 units. Extra Space Storage will manage both facilities.

"Having added four Florida storage assets to our managed portfolios during 2013, we continue to be attracted by the overall strength of the Florida storage market and particularly by well-located assets within the market such as the Kissimmee and St. Petersburg properties," says WPC managing director Liz Raun Schlesinger. "We believe the choice of Extra Space Storage to manage these assets will, in conjunction with our own storage."

These acquisitions increase WPC's managed self-storage assets in Florida to 10 properties totaling 699,674 square feet  Active in the self-storage sector since 2004, WPC's owned and managed properties totaling 9.26 million net rentable square feet on 153 properties. That makes the firm the ninth largest owner of self-storage facilities in the United States.