(Guest Blog courtesy of Nicholas Malagisi, National Director of Self Storage, Sperry Van Ness International)
Dear Nicholas,
The Results Are In!
Well, yes, the first 6 months’ results of the REIT’s operations are now reported and generally as reported by Spencer Kirk of Extra Space, there were “Improvements in virtually all metrics” of performance. This would include FFO; revenues; rental activity; asking rents; occupancy; and NOI as examples. The only things reported “down” from Q-1 to Q-2 were the number of move-outs and discounting.
The REIT’s performances are a barometer for our entire industry, not necessarily because they have so many facilities, but because they cover so large a geography across the county. But there are a number of other operators that are not just regional, but national in scope. Most of them are third-party professional management companies besides owning their own facilities. One such company is Devon Self Storage with 48 properties located in 15 states. Devon has just announced that they, too, are experiencing an increase in rental activity as they added 66,198 SF of net occupancy overall. Go to http://www.devonselfstorage.com and visit their new quarterly newsletter.
New Construction?
One thing operators do not have much to worry about at the moment is new construction of competing facilities. This is the third consecutive year of decreased new construction starts and for most of the operators – they can begin to regain lost occupancy and perhaps an increase in rental rates. But, yes, the smart developers have already begun looking for those in-fill sites to permit, acquire, and develop. Let’s see if the banks are ready to place new development loans to established operators. The word is that construction loans are very difficult to obtain, unless the developer only asks for 50% of cost. Therefore, supply should continue to diminish while demand catches up.
More Happy News!
Sperry Van Ness/Commercial Realty completed the off-market sale of the Brothers Moving & Storage business and propertylocated at 900 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. The purchaser was Storage Deluxe at a price of $10.25 million for the partial redevelopment project. Frank Relf is the architect.
“Caveat Emptor”
One of the few Latin phrases that I retained from Mrs. Metosh’s classroom in high school was “buyer beware.” It is also the caption of an article written in the NAR Commercial Source magazine for August and I couldn’t agree more when it comes time for bidding on notes/loan sale of properties. We participated in the sale of a portfolio of self storage loans last November and the burden of the due diligence fell entirely on our client as the information that was provided by the lender (seller) was incomplete, dated, and could not be relied upon. This type of transaction is not for the rookie investor.
SSA National Self Storage Conference & Trade Show
There SSA Conference and Trade Show is one week away at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Nick is hosting a Roundtable discussion at the Wednesday afternoon session titled, “What are Cap Rates and How Do They Affect the Value of My Facility?”
Please call myself or your SVN National Self Storage representative to schedule an appointment. The “Economic Summit” should be most interesting, as usual, with a solid cadre of industry professionals at the podium to discuss real estate as well as finance issues facing our industry today. But, if you can’t attend, then please call me and use me as a resource to learn the latest.
Courtesy of:
Nicholas J. Malagisi, SIOR
Managing Director, Sperry Van Ness/Commercial Realty
National Director of Self Storage, Sperry Van Ness International
Posted in Investment News, Market Updates, Uncategorized
Tags: CRE, investment, malagisi, National, Oregon, Q2, REIT, Self Storage, Sperry Van Ness, SVN