BSC assists Gelt on Memphis portfolio

 

Chicago-based The BSC Group closed a $31million CMBS loan for the acquisition of an 8-property self storage portfolio located in Memphis, Tennessee, for Gelt, Inc, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment and asset management firm. The seller was Merit Hill Capital.

The facilities were completed between 1972 and 2006 and at the time of the sale were 91% occupied. Gelt selected Citizen Storage to operate the portfolio.

The portfolio is comprised of roughly 3,500 units and totaling 490,000 square feet of net rentable space. The eight buildings are located throughout several submarkets in the Memphis metropolitan area and northern Mississippi, including Memphis; Bartlett, Tennessee; Olive Branch, Mississippi; and Nesbit, Mississippi.

The 10-year non-recourse debt package featured two years of interest-only loan payments and was aggressively underwritten to a 75% loan to cost ratio. 3650 REIT, a nationwide commercial real estate lender originating and servicing portfolio loans, originated the $31 million stable cash flow loan.

Gelt, Inc., a Los Angeles-based real estate investment and asset management firm, engaged The BSC Group to arrange the acquisition financing package.
The BSC Group, LLC provides mortgage brokerage, financial consulting, and loan workout solutions to commercial real estate property owners. The financing was facilitated by principal Devin Huber.

The brokerage team representing Merit Hill Capital was Mike Mele, vice chairman and Luke Elliott, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield. Gelt had in-house representation.

 

G5 launches Call Scoring

 

Digital marketing firm G5 has leveraged machine learning to help real estate marketers analyze the intent of every marketing-generated lead. The new technology is called G5 Call Scoring. It determines whether each person who calls a property has the “intent to rent” and designates those who do as qualified leads. Powered by Call Scoring, Ad Optimization is a first-to-market predictive marketing innovation that then uses intent data to automatically redirect ad spend to the networks and ad types generating the greatest impact, resulting in up to 300% more qualified leads.

Bend, Oregon-based G5 uses technology to drive move-ins for the self storage, multifamily and senior living sectors.

 

E-SoftSys, Veritec integrate products

 

E-SoftSys and Veritec Solutions have integrated the enterprise management system called Self Storage Manager and the revenue management system VRMS. The integration of the two companies’ products is rooted in their complementary strengths. Self storage operators will be able to realize the best of both products in one seamless user experience. Operators using SSM can now use VRMS to manage prices and customer rents efficiently and for maximum financial success.

E-SoftSys offers a complete suite of products and services including SSM, Online Reservations and Rentals, Call Tracker, SSM Text Messenger and others.

Veritec Solutions offers revenue management with its cloud-based VRMS for multi-store self storage operators.

 

Beyond opens Kansas City storage

 

Beyond Self Storage at Brookside has opened at the corner of 67th St and Troost Ave. in Kansas City. The three story facility includes 920 storage units.

This is the 21st location for Beyond and the second in the Kansas City market.

Construction began on the building in October of 2019.

 

Storage Commander releases online access

 

Storage Commander, which provides property management software for the self storage industry, has released Storage Commander Online, which allows facility operators to access their software from any Internet browser.

Features of the offering include a new front-end design for simplified navigation, new user customizations and sorting options, and full optimization for use on Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. It is available at no additional charge for Storage Commander Cloud customers.

Storage Commander platform provides e-signature online rentals, revenue management and SC Pay, an in-house payment-processing service.

 

Brookwood opens San Antonio facility

 

Brookwood Properties has opened a new self storage facility at 4618 San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio, Texas. The three-story, class A facility comprises 116,400 square feet and 940 climate controlled units. The facility will be managed by Life Storage.

The project represents the 51^st facility in the Brookwood portfolio, which spans Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Rosehill Construction was the general contractor and Wichita, Kansas-based Kaufman Design was the architect.

 

Five Star buys 3 properties

 

Fargo, North Dakota-based Five Star Storage acquired the three-property portfolio of Security Self Storage located in Fargo and West Fargo in May. The newly-acquired locations add almost 1,300 units and over 184,000 rentable square footage of self storage space to Five Star’s growing portfolio. The new locations have all been re-branded to Five Star Storage and will soon have upgraded signage, fencing, gate system and additional cameras installed. Five Star Storage retained all three of Security Self Storage’s employees.

Five Star Storage now currently owns and operates 20 self storage facilities across North Dakota and Minnesota and over 1 million rentable square feet.

 

Prestige changes hands

 

Andover Properties, LLC in partnership with Angelo Gordon, has acquired Prestige Self Storage, a 57,600 SF self storage facility in Titusville, Florida.

The property sits on over 5 acres with frontage on US-1. The facility features over 33,700 SF of climate-controlled units, 23,900 SF of traditional drive-up units as well as vehicle parking.

The site will be integrated into the Storage King USA portfolio. New York City-based Andover Properties owns and operates self storage facilities in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, Arizona, and Ohio under its trade name Storage King USA

 

Mini-West expands in Texas

Mini-West Storage is expanding at 1400 N. 45th Street in Corsicana, Texas, according to the Corsicana Daily Sun.

This addition includes 39,950 square feet of climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled storage totaling 278 units.

Community National Bank and Trust of Texas and Advantage Construction and Forge Building Company are partners in the project.

Mini-West Storage was built in 1987 and has 750 storage units.

 

Liberty buys two in North Carolina

 

Liberty Investment Properties has acquired a two-facility self storage portfolio totaling 131,300 net rentable square feet in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina. Two separate investors sold the assets for $18.1 million. Berkadia facilitated an $11.8 million acquisition loan from Skymar Capital Corp., according to Commercial Property Executive.

The new owner will rebrand the properties under its My Neighborhood Storage Center platform. Both facilities have on-site manager, indoor, drive-up access and climate-controlled units.

Located on 5 acres at 6401 Town Center Drive, the Raleigh property was completed in 2016. A private investor sold the asset for $7.8 million. The 72,600-net-rentable-square-foot, two-story building encompasses 685 units.

The Durham asset is a 58,700-net-rentable-square-foot, four-story facility located at 112 W. Seminary Ave. and completed in 2017. NitNeil Partners sold the property for $10.3 million. The building has 645 units .

The brokerage team assisting the borrower included managing directors Michael Weinberg, Rebecca Van Reken and Saul Hoppenstein.

 

Michigan town approves conversion to storage

 

The Livonia, Michigan, planning commission has approved a climate-controlled self storage facility in a former Toys R Us building at 28150 W. Seven Mile, according to Hometown Life.

The completed project will contain about 650 units on two floors.

 

Midcoast brokers Leland sale

 

Leland Storage, located in Leland, North Carolina, near Wilmington, has been sold to a private investor. 

Dale C. Eisenman, CCIM, and Michael Morrison, of Midcoast Properties, Inc. arranged the sale, working with both the buyer and seller. 

The multi-story facility, which opened in Spring 2018, is comprised of 492 climate and humidity-controlled storage units on 1.95 acres, with 54,625 rentable square feet.

Midcoast Properties, Inc. is a commercial real estate broker in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina specializing in self storage.

 

Heartland opens St. Louis property

 

Heartland Companies, LLC has opened a 118,000-square foot self storage facility at 11100 Linpage Place in St. Louis, Missouri. The single story facility contains 790 self storage units and more than 100 RV or boat storage spaces.

The facility is managed by Life Storage, Inc., a self-administered and self-managed equity REIT that operates more than 850 storage facilities in 29 states and Ontario, Canada.

 

City Gate completes Arizona project

 

City Gate Storage, LLC has completed construction of a self storage facility at 1485 N. San Benito Drive in Gilbert, Arizona. The facility’s three stories contain 683 units, all climate-controlled. The building is approximately 103,000 square feet.

The facility is managed by Life Storage, Inc. 

 

Gantry arranges refi

 

Gantry has arranged a $9.5 million refinancing package for Oakley Self Storage, an 80,845-net-rentable-square-foot self storage property at 4700 Main Street, Oakley, California, according to Commercial Property Executive.

Senior director Tom Dao represented the borrower, The Claremont Cos. Standard Insurance Co. originated the loan.

Located on a 3-acre parcel, the 654-unit property encompasses four two-story buildings completed in 2017.

 

Vayo joins Guardian Storage

 

Guardian Storage, which operates 25 self-storage facilities in Colorado and Pennsylvania, has hired Scot Vayo as vice president of operations. Vayo’s role will be to expand the company’s property management and operational footprint.

Vayo comes to Guardian from iStorage, the property-management group for real estate investment trust National Storage Affiliates Trust, where he was regional director.

Vayo holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Nichols College in Massachusetts.

Established in Pittsburgh in 1987, Guardian operates 18 locations in the greater Pittsburgh area and seven locations in Colorado.

 

U-Haul advances two projects

 

U-Haul has acquired land and plans to build a three-story self storage facility on County Road 16A in St. Augustine, Florida, according to the St. Augustine Record.

U-Haul Moving & Storage of Mill Creek will offer truck and trailer sharing and more than 1,000 self storage units.

The facility will also feature RV/boat/vehicle storage. The 100,000-square-foot building is expected to be completed by fall 2021.

Also, U-Haul has opened its newest retail and indoor self storage facility today at 3201 Austin Peay Hwy. in Memphis, Tennessee, according to NewKerala.com.

U-Haul Moving & Storage of Raleigh is a renovated building with 700-plus indoor self storage units. The building was previously a Kmart that was vacant for many years.