The news comes on the heels of the company as a whole was namedone of The Best Companies to Work for in Washington State byWashington CEO magazine. It also follows a recent upgrading of thecompany by Salomon Smith Barney from "neutral" to "outperform."

The self-storage REIT's stock price has been tracking steadilyupward since last October, when the company's share price tradedfor a 52-week low of $21.875. At market close on Thursday, shareswere trading for $29.75, $1.50 below its 52-week high of $31.25,which came last week on June 29.

"We believe FFO growth could accelerate towards the 10% level,largely due to the elimination of dilution from on balance sheetdevelopment, and other non-operating factors, Solomon Smith'sJonathan Litt wrote in a recent research note. "However, to beconservative we are not changing our FFO growth assumptions as thistime.