Dianne Tanna

By Brad Hadfield

he timing couldn’t have been better when MSM released its female-focused cover story “Mini Women” in 1982. The movie “9 to 5” had recently become a cultural touchstone, empowering women by highlighting their struggles in the workplace and promoting gender equality. It may have also put some men on high alert as businesswomen began stepping out from the shadows of their male bosses to make a name for themselves. Dianne Tanna was one of them—and one of the “mini-women” featured in the cover story that year.

Tanna was already eight years into her career when we interviewed her back then and working her way up the corporate ladder. “I moved from Canada to California in 1974, joining the Alison Company and working with a management team responsible for 50 properties in the area,” recalls Tanna. “I’d grown up in a real estate-oriented family, so I knew what I was doing.”

In 1976, Tanna joined Linkletter Properties as an accountant, but she aspired to do more. Was her gender holding her back? In 1982, she told MSM, “I feel that with most companies, there’s usually the sexual discrimination barrier to overcome … but of all the development and management firms I’ve been associated with, Jack Linkletter was the most receptive to the idea of a woman in a primarily male-dominated position.”

Today, she acknowledges that while Linkletter was a great man to work for, the men in the company would usually be heard and promoted first. “I saw three or four VPs come and go, and I said to Jack [Linkletter], ‘Let me do that; I’ll still run the accounting department. I can do both.’”

It took three years or so of hammering this message home before Linkletter would give her the position. But even after becoming vice president, it wasn’t always easy. “I was often the only female at most self-storage events. When people did approach me, even as a VP, they’d still ask to speak to the man in charge. Back then, being a ‘woman of self-storage’ meant you were married to a man in self-storage, and you’d share recipes or gardening tips with the other wives.”

Despite these challenges, Tanna continued to drive the self-storage division forward, growing it to more than 90 properties by 1989. “It was still first-generation self-storage, very primitive by today’s standards, but I loved what I was doing.” However, with a new decade on the horizon, her priorities began to shift as she became more focused on family. And, like many women of the time, raising children meant sacrificing career plans. “I left that year to have a baby. Back then, it was often one or the other. You couldn’t ‘have it all,’ as they say now.”

While raising her children, Tanna did continue to consult with some of Linkletter’s clients, many of whom asked her to please get back into the business. Motivated by their requests, she formed her own company, which she ran as a one-woman show for several years until Ray Tuohy came calling. “Ray had been in the industry as long as me,” says Tanna. “He wanted to partner up and start a third-party management company. He said he’d handle the field work and I could work behind the scenes from my home office. I said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Together, Tanna and Tuohy formed TNT Management. If you haven’t heard of it, Tanna says she’s not surprised. “We don’t advertise, we don’t go to trade shows, our phone number isn’t even listed. We grow our clients organically and through word-of-mouth.”

The strategy has worked well for the duo. Today, TNT manages about 75 locations from Texas to Hawaii; some of its clients have been with them for more than 30 years. Over that time, Tanna says she’s seen many changes. “Technology is a big one, of course; there were no computers when I started in this business,” says Tanna. “Now, everything is virtual, and people can rent units online.”

While tech upgrades have been a boon for business, Tanna says she’s still not a fan of remotely managed properties. “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” she says. “I don’t think you can replace that personal interaction that happens when there’s a manager on site. I think part of the reason we haven’t had to engage in some of those recent pricing strategies of the REITs is because we have good staff on property, and people appreciate that and will pay for that.”

Although self-storage has become more future-focused, Tanna doesn’t know what the future will bring for the industry. “I think people are less likely to hold on to stuff these days,” she says. “I’m a mother with grown children; I’ve tried to give them some beautiful old furniture, and they don’t want it. They look at it and are like, ‘Mom, please … Oh, God, no.’ So why would you store that when no one wants it?”

Tanna says she’s opened up many units for auction to find what she considers nice things, but things that obviously no one wanted. “You can’t sell some of this stuff. You can’t even give it away. I wish I had a rosier outlook, but I don’t. I think as my generation ages out—we’re the ones who hold on to stuff like the family china and whatnot—I see some aspects of self-storage disappearing.”

But not all self-storage, she’s quick to add. She does believe that younger generations will continue to gravitate toward self-storage as a place to keep belongings that they use often but are too large to keep in their home. “Small units, or lockers, those will always be popular,” she says. “As housing gets smaller and the square footage goes down, people need to put things away that they use routinely, like sports gear. So, while I think demand is going to go down, and the overbuilding needs to slow, there will still always be a need.”

Despite some of the challenges of being a woman in the industry in the early days of self-storage, Tanna looks back on the time fondly. “I’m proud to say I was a pioneer in this industry. I worked with others on state boards to create operating systems, procedures, and policies. We helped write the California Self-Storage Act, one of the first lien laws. And what made it so much fun and so challenging is that all of us were first-timers. We were people with an entrepreneurial spirit taking risks that, for the most part, paid off.”

Continues Tanna, “As far as women in self-storage, and business in general, I think we’ve come a long way. My son works in our company now, and we have a lot of area managers his age [30-something]. When I relate some of these old stories to them, they’re like ‘What?’ They can’t wrap their heads around the way it was. And that’s a good thing.”

Does she have any advice for women entering the industry today? “Always work your hardest, do your best, and don’t ever say, ‘It’s not my job.’ Instead, just get the job done.”

Ryan Hanks

By Victória Oliveira

ith 22 years of experience in the self-storage industry, Ryan Hanks started his career like many others in the business, working in the multifamily sector, the initial industry of Madison Capital Group, a holding company he founded back in 2009, and works to this day as the chief executive officer. “I had come from the multifamily space,” he says, “and so Madison, at its roots, was investing in multifamily assets.”

While looking to expand his company’s portfolio, he stumbled upon self-storage. This industry would soon become a big focus of his business and, at the time, was the obvious expansion due to the industry’s similarities. “We predominantly had been doing multifamily residential when I started Madison Capital Group. And I started looking at other investment types that we could get into at Madison, and so started studying the storage space for a couple of years,” he states. “Ultimately, we felt like that was a place we could build a business around, so we started with just a couple of assets and grew from there.”

Go Store It Self Storage launched in 2013 and grew to become one of the biggest assets of Madison Capital. However, at the onset of COVID, Hanks noticed he could expand his self-storage assets even further by focusing on an entirely new aspect of the industry often overlooked. “When COVID hit, people were spending more money on outdoor recreational activities, so what we noticed in a lot of our Go Store It portfolio and other companies was how excess parking has always been in high demand,” he says. “It is common to see many different kinds of vehicles using [the excess parking], from cars to boats and RVs. But we felt strongly that there was a bigger business there, a bigger need for people that wanted to be in a secure location, wanted access to their vehicles, or whatever it may be at any given time.”

It was then that Hanks decided to expand into the specialized self-storage sector, opening BlueGate Boat and RV Storage in 2021. “We call it boat and RV storage, and that’s certainly the base of what we do, but the reality is we have commercial users, car dealerships, sprinter vans, food trucks, school buses, party buses, limos, you name it,” he adds. “Because, again, they want security. A lot of them want these items covered. They want them fully enclosed. Our knowledge of the storage business allowed us to jumpstart that business, and now we’re growing it as an independent vertical.”

With 12 new facilities under development, Hanks doesn’t believe the industry will slow down anytime soon. “Even during COVID, storage became a less impactful business in terms of interacting with people. A lot of people rent online. A lot of people don’t need to go to the leasing office. It’s a business where a lot of people can do things on their own, and I don’t think we’ve seen it really change since then. We didn’t see a lot of volatility.”

To keep a business booming for over a decade, it is imperative to grow the business in scale, keeping up with the latest market needs and trends. Thinking of that, Hanks says Go Store It Self Storage went unmanned, and the company opened their own customer service center to make sure the customer service aspect of the business wouldn’t suffer in the transition. “Our operations team has done a great job adding technology to our business. We feel really strongly about the kind of unmanned opportunities we wanted to bring to our company, and we’ve been investing a lot in that. We’re implementing that across our entire portfolio.”

He mentions creating a call center for customer service early on was one of the reasons why he had such a successful transition from manned facilities to unmanned ones.

“We’re able to use the call center across all the different businesses and staff that up appropriately as we grow,” he says, while making sure to point out there are different groups inside their call center that are specific for each specialized asset type to assure that customers will talk directly to someone who will know how to best aid them when they call.

Besides using technology to the best of its capabilities while finding ways to strengthen the customer-business relationship, Hanks mentions the secret to success in the industry in his experience comes down to location, quality of the facilities, and great customer service. “I think our customer service activity is fantastic. And what we’re finding is even with somebody not being on site, in the way that our technology works, we are able to keep the same high standards of interaction with somebody on a screen, so customers are getting that very high quality of customer service because they’re interacting with people from all over the country all day,” he states. “I think its location, quality of facilities, and customer service really kind of set us apart.”

When choosing a new location to either build a new facility or acquire an existing one, he mentions one should do their homework on their local competition. “A lot of it is really just driven by the competition within that particular location. We just try to focus on areas where we think that there’s obviously upside in rentals and we’re not going to get bombarded with competition, or there’s not a lot of local competition there already.”

As for marketing a new facility, he makes sure his team is building connections with other local businesses, and that’s key to creating awareness.

“I think on top of your obvious web presence, which is a big part of what we do in the self-storage space, one of the things our operations team does is just reaching out to other businesses that have some synergies from the housing communities and apartment communities and things like that, with a residential focus. It makes creating awareness whenever we’re opening a new facility much easier.”

A big focus on the self-storage assets of Hanks’ business is acquiring value-add storage acquisitions, but each facility he undertakes has different improvement needs; however, some are more common than others. “Every facility is different,” he says. “Some of it could need a CapEx value-add proposal, meaning it needs dollars invested to make the appearance look better or to modernize; some of it may be there’s an expansion component on excess land, whether that could be used for parking or that could be used for expanding the square footage. It could also be a redevelopment opportunity on a low-density property in an A location; some of it’s as simple as just putting it on the Go Store platform. There have also been instances where local operators are not utilizing all the technology and tactics, whereby simply implementing what we do every day in our facilities we could see an enhancement in operational. However, oftentimes it’s usually a combination of CapEx cleanup, expansion, and putting it on our platform, as it does create that value and the value-add enhancement.”

As for BlueGate, which was first launched as a specialized boat and RV storage, Hanks and his team have managed to grow it to encompass different verticals. “BlueGate opened up a lot of different opportunities because, again, boat and RV storage is its own thing, but it’s similar to other things, so now we’re into mariners because there’s a lot of crossover between what we do and marinas. So, we’re now buying and building marinas.”

Due to the synergies of the industries, BlueGate has also grown to become an industrial outdoor storage option, as the opportunity presented itself. “It’s just storage, no matter what you want to call it. Now, that’s a little bit bigger in terms of you have companies like trucking companies, construction companies, and even energy companies that need energy that rent a specific lot for a longer period and know that it’s secure, it’s theirs, they don’t have to worry about it,” he says. “That’s become a large business. Because of BlueGate, we’ve entered into two new verticals within that sector because there’s a lot of crossovers and synergies there.”

For operators who wish to give boat and RV storage a try, Hanks offers sensible guidance. “I think people underestimate how difficult it is to operate these types of projects and facilities. I would advise people to really focus on the operational, have that sound strategy there, and be hands-on,” he states. “The acquisition of existing marinas is preferred over developing new ones, as the existing facilities already have a customer base and occupancy. When acquiring marinas, the company focuses on improving the customer experience, increasing revenues, and enhancing the property in various ways, such as re-racking the dry stack storage to accommodate more boat sizes.”

By Chuck Gordon

ot long ago, success in self-storage was built on experience, local knowledge, and paper ledgers. Operators relied on what they could see, track by hand, or learn over time. But in today’s market, that’s no longer enough. Today, the industry’s most successful operators are coupling end-to-end technology platforms with data to make precise, strategic decisions that drive profitability. They’re not just tracking performance, they’re optimizing it. The shift from manual to digital has been transformative, and we’re still in the early innings of what’s possible.

The timing couldn’t be more critical. With rent rates under pressure and occupancy challenges mounting, storage operators need an edge. And that edge is data—not just having it but knowing how to use it.

Thankfully, I’m seeing fewer businesses struggle with data overload. With the right tools, they’re quickly transforming raw numbers into actionable insights and gaining an advantage in their local markets. As access to sophisticated data analysis becomes more widely available, more independent operators are competing on an even playing field with the industry’s biggest companies.

When self-storage began booming in the 1970s and 1980s, facility management was largely analog. Today’s operators have access to real-time metrics that would have seemed like science fiction just 20 years ago.

This transformation mirrors what we’ve seen in other industries. Remember when Netflix sent DVDs by mail? Now the streaming giant beams movies directly to your laptop, analyzing more than 100 billion hours of viewing data to create a perfectly curated feed for each user. The company mines this treasure trove of data to decide which creators to invest in and the types of stories that are most likely to become a major hit. In self-storage, we’re on a similar trajectory, moving from basic data collection to predictive analytics and AI-driven insights.

Occupancy rates, revenue data, customer behavior patterns, customer satisfaction metrics—every self-storage operator should be monitoring these KPIs. The most successful operators, however, are using these insights to drive decisions in two critical areas: operational efficiency and enhancing the customer experience.

Lead Management
Data analytics allows operators to identify, track, and convert prospects more effectively throughout the sales pipeline. By analyzing lead sources, conversion rates, and customer interactions, facilities can implement targeted follow-up strategies that capture and convert more leads. This data-driven approach helps prioritize high-value prospects, optimize marketing spend, and ultimately increase occupancy rates.

Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management
By analyzing historical occupancy patterns, competitive rates, and customer price sensitivity, operators can put in place dynamic pricing strategies and drive more sustainable revenue. This is especially important as facility managers look for a competitive edge in challenging markets. Data insights empower them to maximize their facility’s value and continuously meet tenant expectations.

Staff Effectiveness
Your team is your greatest asset, and data helps them be in the right place at the right time. Analytics can forecast facility traffic patterns, enabling managers to schedule team members when customers need them most. This frees up staff to focus on high-value activities—even during high-pressure, busy periods—and improve customer service.

Personalized Tenant Interactions
Data-driven personalization transforms how operators engage with tenants throughout their journey. By leveraging rental history, preferences, and behavior patterns, facilities can create tailored interactions that feel personal and responsive. For example, when a tenant calls, integrated systems instantly identify them, presenting staff with their complete profile. This elicits natural conversations, builds trust, and boosts loyalty while streamlining every interaction.

Seamless Communications
Data empowers operators to deploy intelligent communication workflows that evolve with the customer relationship. From customized follow-up messages with unit-specific details to timely move-in reminders with facility directions, these personalized touchpoints strengthen customer relationships while maintaining operational efficiency.

According to recent Storable research, four in five storage customers consider technology an important factor when choosing a storage rental, while 83 percent still value quality customer service, demonstrating that modern tenants expect both technology convenience and human assistance.

Personalized Marketing
Data also allows for targeted marketing based on customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, you can design promotions for specific segments, such as business customers, seasonal renters, or long-term tenants.

For example, recent Storable and SpareFoot data shows that 31 percent of Americans have converted guest bedrooms into storage spaces in the past year. Operators could use this information to create targeted campaigns for homeowners facing space constraints, highlighting how self-storage provides a better alternative than sacrificing living space worth thousands in real estate value.

Service Evolution
Usage data can also identify opportunities for new services. For example, if tenants frequently request climate control for wine storage, you could create a premium wine storage service.

This is where the excitement truly begins. While the industry has made significant strides in data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) is opening entirely new horizons. AI-driven tools are already transforming operations for adopters.

AI and automation already play a pivotal role in supercharging data analytics. They’re helping operators move from reactive to proactive decision-making by identifying patterns, surfacing hidden insights, and delivering real-time recommendations. So instead of sifting through spreadsheets or dashboards, operators can receive timely, AI-curated guidance, like how to better balance your unit mix, or which marketing channel is performing best.

In this way, AI and automation aren’t just processing data faster, they’re making it more useful, actionable, and accessible to every team member, no matter their data expertise.

While embracing these technologies, we must remember that self-storage remains fundamentally about people. The most successful implementations use AI to handle routine transactions while freeing humans to focus on complex problem-solving and relationship building.

In fact, recent Storable data shows that 80 percent of self-storage tenants still consider an on-site manager at least somewhat important, a statistic that underscores the value of human connection in this increasingly digital world.

The operators who will dominate the next decade won’t necessarily have the newest facilities or best locations. They will be the ones who most effectively leverage data to identify new business opportunities and seize them.

It’s important to remember, though, that collecting data itself isn’t the goal—superior business outcomes are. As we navigate the challenges of today’s market, the operators who strategically deploy these technologies will increasingly separate themselves from those that don’t.

The data revolution in self-storage isn’t coming—it’s already here. The question is no longer whether to participate, but how quickly you can adapt to the new reality of intelligent, data-driven operations.

he additional profits from ground-up self-storage development make them very attractive. Successful projects start long before construction, with confirmation of data from well over a dozen data points to make sure you are choosing a winning location.

The following information is provided for discussion purposes only and will change based on individual risk tolerances, available cash, loan type, loan interest rates, construction cost, location, and other factors. Conversions of existing buildings to self-storage have many of the same data review requirements as land parcels.

Many parcels are going to fall in the maybe or long-shot range. When they do, it takes a considerable amount of time, additional research, and multiple preliminary designs to see if they are worth making an offer on. Without this significant additional research pre-contract, your money and time during the contract due diligence will be at higher risk.

Many developers can’t afford to spend days or even weeks reviewing many marginal sites. Sometimes you must pass quickly on a “maybe” parcel so that you have more time to look for a winner. You must establish your data limits where you are going to quickly pass to save time. In the end, it can take a review of over 100 parcels and three or more offers to purchase one great site. Again, there must be a line that we should quickly say no and move on, otherwise land search can be exhausting and lead to failure.

The following are major data points and their yes, no, and maybe ranges. They are based upon a typical 6-acre, single-story, 80,000-gross-square-foot (approximately 62,000 net rentable) development that helps determine the final evaluation. If you have a low- or high-risk tolerance or high- or low-experience level, these data points may need to be adjusted.

Yes ++: Zoned for self-storage, permitted use. Final approval by staff only.
Yes +: Zoned for self-storage, permitted use. Final approval by citizen commission/board with a public hearing.
Yes: Zoned for self-storage, permitted by special exception. Final approval by the citizen commission/board with a public hearing. The commission has leeway to confirm that the use fits in with the neighborhood and requires additional design requirements not specified in the regulations. It’s important to have the city staff support your project and design features.
No: The property requires a zone change. Typically, this can cost $10,000-plus and four months of time, and there’s an extremely high likelihood of denial.

Assuming no wetlands, floodplain, easements, or steep slopes, etc. (add a half acre if no sanitary sewer).

Yes: 6-plus acres for 60,000-plus net rentable square feet.
Maybe: 4 to 6 acres but could end up with less rentable square feet.
No: Less than 4 acres (unless you are building multistory).

Yes: City water and sewer available on site.
Maybe/No: If not available, more land acreage will be required. Research local sprinkler building codes.

Yes +: Greater than 30,000 people.
Yes: Greater than 20,000 people.
Maybe: 15,000 people if there’s no competition in the three-mile radius.
No: Under 15,000 people. There’s often too long of a rent-up time, or this population size will only support a small facility.

Yes: Competition achieved rental rates over $150 per month, so you can charge more.
Maybe: Achieved rental rates $130 to $150 per month if you have done the research and have a game plan that allows you to charge $160-plus per month and the land may be purchased at an exceptional price.
No: Achieved rental rates under $130 per month.

Note: This is dependent on your cash investment, rate of return required, and is subject to change based on land price and loan interest rate. Not all self-storages are competition, so you need to visit each one and do a detailed evaluation. “Achieved Rental Rates” refers to the average actual rental income, not advertised web or in-store rates. “Achieved Rental Rates” represents the average rates paid by tenants after factoring in discounts, rate increases, and other pricing adjustments.

Yes: The competition is full and has great rental rates; there is limited pipeline facilities and sufficient population.
Yes: Total square footage per person, including existing, pipeline, and your self-storage facility, is 8 square feet per person or less.
Maybe: Eight to 12 square feet person, including existing, pipeline, and your facility. You’d need to check the competition’s rates and occupancy.
No: Unless there is a very high population, 12 square feet per person, including existing, pipeline, and your facility.

Note: Facility occupancy and rates are a better determination of demand. Some existing facilities with a detailed site visit and review may be determined not to be competition and need not be included in the square feet per person.

These answers are assuming typical site costs, no extreme interest rates, and you have $1.5 million cash to develop an 80,000-gross-square-foot, single-story facility. In the end, a feasibility study including a detailed P & L projection by your feasibility expert must be done.

Yes: $500,000 to $800,000 goal.
Yes: $800,000 to $1 million if you pre-confirm all land is usable and the land is flat with no unusual or municipal roadway or utility construction required.
Yes: Over $1 million when the competition has high rental rates, the facilities are full, and you have over $1.5 million cash to purchase the land and have design plans completed before the bank loan.
Maybe: Slightly over $1 million and do not meet the above yes items.
No: Over $1 million and you only have $1.3 million to invest.

Yes ++: Greater than 30,000 cars a day.
Yes +: Greater than 20,000 cars a day.
Yes: Greater than 15,000 cars a day.
Maybe: 10,000 to 15,000 cars a day.
No: Less than 10,000 cars a day.
No: Dead-end streets or good traffic counts but not visible from the street.

Note: Highway traffic is a bonus but typically not to be included in your traffic count.

Yes: Good, unobstructed view and easy access.
Maybe: Mostly good, unobstructed view.
No: Visibility from the main road is obstructed.
No: Difficult access.

“Maybes” take a lot of work and often serious assumptions that many people are not willing to take. “Maybes” take extra work once open to make the assumptions come true. Some people should never go to the next level on a “maybe.” Others are more than willing to take the chance and accept the extra time and cost of turning a “maybe” into a “no” or a “yes.” A “maybe” can be like a zone change; they feel good if you get approved and terrible if you get denied because of the time and money spent.

One problem with the “maybe” group is it takes a lot of work to turn it into a high “maybe.” Then, to go to the next step, you take a chance and spend $3,500 to $10,000-plus to have the contract prepared, third-party feasibility study, etc. It will become a learning experience. Even if it is a go, it could be for a limited-sized facility and a longer rent-up time frame.

Of course, some data points are more important than others. Sometimes a single data point, like low population, can sink a site, so check the easy data points first.

How you evaluate a location for self-storage development is more than just a numbers game. While it is true that gathering traditional empirical data, such as demographics, zoning, acreage, traffic, household income, competition data, etc., is critical, you must visit every location and the competition early on. The emotional data you obtain from this in-person visit can often trump the empirical data. (More on emotional data coming soon.)

Gathering comprehensive data prevents missteps and strengthens your case for financing and approvals. To that end, the numbers and hard data matter. However, it is not a complete picture. The combined empirical and emotional data collected ultimately will help guide you to viable locations for self-storage development. Building a strong and experienced team early on will help you analyze the data and help you determine your acceptable parameters. Data-driven decisions now lead to successful and profitable self-storage projects later.

magine you have a piece of land that is perfect for self-storage development. The visibility is unmatched off a major highway, the population density is high, the zoning is in place, and there aren’t any competitors looking to build self-storage near your site anytime soon. You’ve done your due diligence and are ready to build.

Now, how do you create the most efficient unit mix that maximizes profit and provides what customers are seeking? Do you build non-climate-controlled units that all have drive-up access? Or do you build a multistory building with all climate-controlled units? Developers face these types of questions every day. This month we will unpack the value proposition of climate-controlled self-storage units as well as provide data on climate-controlled premiums across all the major MSAs.

Climate-controlled self-storage units provide a unique service to customers with special needs. Customers who store valuable items such as antiques, appliances, artwork, documents, instruments, or furniture benefit from climate-controlled storage options, as these special items could be damaged in extreme temperatures or humidity.

Naturally, a customer is charged more for the use of a climate-controlled unit. According to the SSA’s 2023 Self Storage Demand Study, more than 30 percent of renters are willing to pay more for a climate-controlled unit. So, developers should only build climate-controlled units since they make the most money, right? It depends. Constructing climate-controlled facilities is more costly than constructing traditional facilities. In addition, it’s important to understand your trade area and if customers are looking for a climate-controlled storage product. If climate-controlled storage is undesirable in your area, then you won’t be able to charge enough to justify the extra cost to build climate-controlled storage.

The top five MSAs where climate-controlled rates are achieving the highest premium over non-climate-controlled rates are listed in the Top 5 MSAs table. We’ve also included the bottom five MSAs, where climate-controlled rates aren’t achieving much, if any, of a premium over non-climate-controlled rates, in the Bottom 5 MSAs table. We’ve used a unit size of 10-by-10 and average street rates from February 2024 to January 2025.

See Top 5 MSAs and Bottom 5 MSAs tables.

It’s no surprise that high humidity areas like Louisiana and Alabama top the list of markets with the highest climate-controlled premium. On the flip side, areas with mild climates in California and the northwest aren’t commanding a premium for climate-controlled units. Interestingly, in San Francisco, non-climate-controlled units have higher advertised rates, suggesting that customers don’t see a significant value-add from using climate-controlled storage. Although difficult to confirm, this could also indicate an oversupply of climate-controlled units. The next time you are thinking of building climate-controlled units, look at the data to see if the juice is worth the squeeze. TractIQ aims to provide investors with the best data to make the best decisions. Send us an email to support@tractiq.com to get a list of the climate-controlled premium for the top markets across the U.S.

very single person on this planet has experienced some kind of hardship. It’s so commonplace that we all deal with it the best way we can, then move on with our lives. And since we also have routines and obligations, it’s really easy to forget how fortunate we are when something is going well, such as having a loving family, a secure home, or being in good health. If you’re lucky, you have all three.

But AJ Osborne doesn’t take anything for granted. Even the simplest of actions, such as getting out of bed or going out for a walk, are huge reminders that the little things in life are actually the big things.

Osborne was born and raised in rural Idaho. “My mom was a farm girl and my dad grew up in poverty in a small farming community in the mountain desert of southern Idaho,” he says. “All my family were farmers.”

He spent a lot of time outdoors, enjoying the mountains and fly fishing in the backcountry. “I loved it. It was rural, but Boise was relatively close by, and even though it was a small city when I was growing up, it felt like we kind of had everything.”

The mountains were peaceful. So much so, in fact, that he could go a full week without seeing other people. “We’d go up and fish for our food, go white water rafting, and ski. It was awesome,” he says, highlighting how enjoyable life can be when we focus on what’s going well and the beauty of nature.

By the time he got to high school, he realized that school wasn’t his favorite place. “I was dyslexic and I had ADHD. School wasn’t set up for me, even if I worked hard. So my parents said I could test out if I could. I took the high school equivalency test and passed it, so my freshman year was my only year of high school.”

Although Osborne had a hard time with his primary and secondary education, almost one year after passing the GED, he decided to go to college at the East Idaho campus of Brigham Young University. “I lived in student housing. My parents came up with me to meet all my roommates and to make sure that they were good people,” he recalls. “I also got a job at the school’s farming department and skied with the school right before the campus got rid of their sports program.” Even back then, what was going on in his life was unexpected; completing your first semester of college at 16 was considered odd.

While in college, he went on a mission trip to São Paulo, where he lived with Brazilians and learned to speak Portuguese fluently. He was so immersed in the language that he even started dreaming in it. It’s a time in his life he remembers fondly. “I loved it with all my heart, and I wanted to stay to live there forever, but my parents wanted me to come back after the two-year mission because they wanted me to finish school and get my life started.”

In October 2017, Osborne was working three jobs. “We’d been building a self-storage investment business, Cedar Creek Capital. I also had my own insurance clients from the time I had been in business with my dad, and I was running the insurance department for that national company I mentioned. Life was going great.”

During a trip with Tessa, their fourth baby, and his parents, he started feeling sick. “We were in California for the PGA tour,” Osborne recalls. “The night before we came home, I went out for a run in the golf course, but I couldn’t get very far because I felt weak and was out of breath.”

The family traveled back to Boise the next day, and they went to a friend’s wedding. The day after that, Osborne was planting trees and had to stop to throw up. “I thought that maybe I was sick because I had been working so much, been traveling, then went to a wedding, and was exerting myself planting trees,” he says. “I went to the doctor, and they told me I was fine, so we went back home.”

Then he decided to take a bath. That was the moment everything took a turn for the worst. “When I was going to get out of the bathtub, my legs didn’t work,” Osborne says, adding that he called for Tessa to come help him and they rushed back to the hospital. “In a couple of days, the rest of my body was paralyzed. I even lost the ability to breathe. I was put into a coma. When I woke up, I was hooked to machines keeping me alive.”

The moment was terrifying for obvious reasons, and it was compounded by the fact that the doctors wouldn’t find the cause of it. There was no diagnosis, yet he could only communicate by blinking his eyes.

Eventually, the doctors discovered that he was suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the central nervous system. “What happened was that my immune system thought my nervous system was a virus and it ripped it apart, until it shut down my brain. I was 33. One minute I was fine, the next my legs didn’t work, and the next I was on life support.” Sobering at breakneck speed doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Following this medical mishap, he and his family practically lived at the hospital. “My youngest child, Theo, was still a baby, and the only way I could interact with him was when Tessa would place him next to me on my pillow,” recalls Osborne. “He’d reach out his little hands to touch my face.”

He had started breathing on his own again, but doctors didn’t know if he was going to live. Eventually, there was nothing else the medical team could do for him, so he was transferred to a rehab facility. “At this point, I had feelings in my fingers again, and they trained me to live in a wheelchair,” says Osborne. “I ended up staying there for a month, until the insurance company kicked me out.”

“When all of this happened, I lost myself,” says Osborne. “I was an outdoorsman, I was a mountain biker, I went backpacking with my kids. All of a sudden, I couldn’t do anything. What’s my purpose now?”

The more he thought about it, the clearer the answer became. “I was in the hospital on Christmas Eve,” he recalls. “It was snowing outside my window, and I was so excited to go home the next day and see my kids open their presents. I knew my wife was going to spoil them.”

He also realized that even though he no longer had a job, he wasn’t worried about keeping their house or about Tessa having to provide for the family. “All that happened because while I had my full-time job, I had also invested and built Cedar Creek Capital on the side, and that’s where my income was coming from, even while I was hospitalized.”

While he didn’t really have to work, he decided to teach other people about how to become more financially independent through self-storage. He started the Self Storage Income podcast. He wrote two books on the subject to teach others how to invest in self-storage to become more financially independent (Growing Wealth in Self Storage and Growing Wealth in Self Storage 2.0). “I say self-storage saved my financial life. Even when I couldn’t work, my assets were working and paying me.”

He also loves to travel. “That’s a big deal to us. I still have to deal with fatigue and medications constantly, but we still like to get out and have experiences together.” When asked about his favorite travel destination, he’s quick to answer: “Anywhere with my kids.” It’s always a toss up between the beach and the mountains, but whatever it is, there’s not much sitting in a hotel or beach lounger. They’re all about being active.

And no story is truly complete without mentioning the pets. “We have to Bernese mountain dogs, Oakley and Teddy Bear.” Don’t let the name of the latter fool you. He’s 145 lbs, but he’s still their little bear.

It’s been eight years since that fateful day that upended the entire family. “A lot of people have asked me if I ever get mad at God, or if I hate that now I live in pain every day,” says Osborne, “but honestly, I’m so overcome with gratitude—it outweighs everything else. Being on life support, not being able to communicate, and now look at how much better I’ve gotten. I’m literally so overwhelmed with gratitude for everything that I have. I feel very, very fortunate.”

Just like that, a trash can sealed the deal—and the direction the Minsleys’ lives would take. Brad secured the internship and Cliff joined them years later as an intern when he was in college. The trio moved from Raleigh, N.C., to Tampa, Fla., where the market was booming. Now, the two brothers were making a name for themselves in the real estate business together.

The Minsleys had learned a lot from their unexpected mentor, but everything was about to change. In 2008, the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) threw the economy into turmoil. “That was a turning point,” says Minsley. “Our previous employer was a successful guy, and we’d helped him get through the GFC, but Brad and I were ready to do our own thing, in our own backyard, in North Carolina, and we wanted to do it with a different lens toward risk.”

In 2010, now back in their hometown, the brothers started 10 Federal. “We didn’t have much,” says Minsley, “but starting at zero after the GFC was a much better position to be in than the people trying to dig themselves out of a hole.”

The brothers were concerned that the $1.5 trillion TARP stimulus designed to right-size the economy following the GFC would lead to runaway inflation, so they began looking at hard assets. “That’s where you go during times of inflation, so our first business plan was apartment-centric,” says Minsley, who relays how he and his brother became fascinated by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing. “It was government insured, and had a really long-term, fixed interest rate loan, so getting into necessity-based housing was a really safe play because rental rates and inflation will grow and outstrip your debt.”

Their plan attracted a lot of limited partner interest from those they’d worked with during the GFC. “They would say, ‘You were upfront with us during the crisis. You didn’t lie about how bad things were and you always had a solution. And this sounds good—steady Eddie sounds good.’” That’s how the brothers were able to found the business.

Apartments had a great run in that period of time. While cap rates were declining, their cost of capital wasn’t. The brothers felt they were being squeezed out of the space, so in 2015 they decided to diversify and pivot to self-storage. “We’d been a small fish in a very large pond,” says Minsley, “and with storage, which was similar to apartments, we thought perhaps we could be a small fish in a smaller pond.”

Once they entered the self-storage industry, the disparity between the size of the market and the level of sophistication was surprising. “For one, it seemed counterintuitive to us that properties had on-site managers … that just seemed odd,” says Minsley. “So right there, we saw an opportunity there to inject some innovation and forward-thinking into the industry.”

After cutting his teeth at Public Storage for nearly eight years, Andrew Capranos was brought onboard to lead the way as president of 10 Federal. He and the Minsleys saw eye to eye when it came to turning self-storage into a high-tech space.

“Cliff and Brad were always ahead of the curve on technology,” says Capranos. “Right off the bat, they installed a cloud-based camera system, which was pretty novel 10 years ago.”

At the first 10 Federal facility, where there was a manager on site, the cameras revealed that he was watching Netflix and playing Candy Crush for six hours a day. “That’s when they went unmanned,” Capranos says matter-of-factly.

One of his first moves upon joining 10 Federal was to have the company’s in-house developers build a call dispositioning tool that would track why customers were contacting the call center. Most customers were calling for the same reasons: to make a payment, get the gate code, rent a unit, report a problem, and so on. “We then knew that 80 percent of those inquiries could be automated,” says Capranos. “So that’s what we did through our online portal. It greatly reduced the number of calls coming in and the expense of the call center.”

Building out the AI camera, sensor, and access control system across all 10 Federal locations was another priority for Capranos. Their camera systems run in-camera AI and can recognize the motion of a human or car vs. the movement of generic items. They can also perform facial and license-plate recognition, among many other features. “With facial recognition, off-site managers can easily identify tenants, vendors, maintenance workers, and others who may come and go throughout the day or night,” says Capranos. “The system will also capture video if someone shouldn’t be there or is acting suspiciously, which further notifies off-site staff to look into the issue.”

He’s also helped introduce drones to their facilities. Manufactured by Sunflower Labs, the drones integrate with their camera system to provide an eye in the sky. “They go on predetermined flight paths and record what they see, using AI technology to then summarize it all in a report,” says Capranos.

Watch one of 10 Federal’s drones perform a property sweep on the company’s Vimeo channel.

Capranos’ latest endeavor, at a time when many facilities are installing kiosks, is to rip them all out. “People don’t want to use them,” he says. “They have a kiosk in their pocket, and it’s called a smartphone.”

With their smartphones, customers can use the 10 Federal Curbside Rental & Service Center. Similar in look to other curbside pickups but bolstered by complex tech behind the scene, customers simply drive up and scan a QR code to access the Tenant Connect portal, where they can rent a unit, manage their account, pay a bill, get their access gate and DaVinci Lock codes, report issues, and even move out.

“I see kiosks as horse-and-buggy technology now,” says Capranos. “Our tech lets people do everything from the safety and comfort of their car.”

Although 10 Federal’s facilities are unmanned, Capranos makes it clear that their automated management model does not compromise the core business, which is renting space and providing great customer service. “You can provide a great experience without an on-site manager,” says Capranos. “In fact, in many cases, you can actually improve the tenant experience.”

He knows it’s a unique philosophy and likely divergent from what a lot of people think. However, 10 Federal is able to take the on-site personnel payroll and put it toward endeavors that improve the business. “A lot of that may go toward our property monitoring technologies. From my experience working at Public Storage, for example, I can tell you that unless there was an incident like a break-in that drove me to pull up camera footage, I was not monitoring cameras and my people were not monitoring cameras, so it was all reactionary. On the other hand, 10 Federal is proactively monitoring the properties. We have staff that monitors all 100 of our locations across the country, even overnight.”

They’re not just looking for break-ins either. “They’re looking for anything that can be done to improve the property,” he says. “Are the aisles free of trash and debris? Is the landscaping cut? Does the signage look good? Are there maintenance issues? And we get reports on all of that.”

A common misconception some people have about 10 Federal is that the company culture must be non-existent because of how few people operate its portfolio. “They think because our facilities are unmanned that we just don’t have any employees,” says Capranos. “I can tell you that it’s quite the opposite. We have the best employees in the business.”

Because the properties are running more efficiently, the company is able to go out and hire great people and pay them what they’re worth. “I’ve been very intentional about building my team here,” adds Capranos. “We only recruit the best, and they often come from other facilities, of any size, from independent operators to REITs. And they like that at 10 Federal they’re able to color outside the lines a bit as we innovate in this industry.”

One of the company’s core values is centered around being a master of your craft. “Whatever is your sandbox, and whatever you’re in charge of, we want you to become the best you can at it. We’re focused on relentless improvement and we’re always looking for ways to grow, evolve, push boundaries, and go against the status quo.”

Capranos says another part of the company culture is collaboration. “No one says, ‘that’s not my job,’ and there are no egos here.” He elaborates further, stating that everyone works, wins, and celebrates together and that 90 percent of the corporate staff are in the same building every day.

With remote work rare, Capranos believes the 10 Federal team can pivot in an instant and share ideas in real time. “For us, the next great idea happens at the coffee station, soda machine, or over a team lunch, not necessarily on a Zoom call,” he says.

What’s next for 10 Federal? “We’re targeting the acquisition of fragmented small operator properties near major MSAs in the Southeast and Texas,” says Minsley. “All of our acquisition decisions are data driven. We look for businesses we can fix, automate, and grow.”

Minsley explains that 10 Federal employs 0.5 to 0.6 people per store, whereas the major REITs tend to employ about 1.9 to 2.2 employees per store. “That means it’s pretty easy for us to onboard and grow store count. We know what properties will be a good fit or not when it comes to OpEx, because our OpEx is normally pretty static. For other companies, there might be five or six variable OpEx line items. For us, there’s maybe two. And using statistical regression analysis and machine learning, we’ll know what the upper bands of the rental rates we can achieve are with confidence intervals in our markets from a revenue perspective.”

To make the acquisitions, 10 Federal continues to raise funds, something they’ve been extremely successful at. When the company was buying assets in 2021 to 2022, they deployed cash only. Because of that, they have no legacy issues from being over-levered on debt with high interest rates. “Some of our peers are working through that now, while we’ve been able to accelerate through what’s been a pretty soft year for storage in 2023 to 2024. In fact, we had our best capital raising year ever last year.”

With all their success, why aren’t other self-storage companies taking a page from their book? Capranos thinks it’s because there is anxiety around introducing anything new to an existing business. “People get in the mindset of ‘it’s always worked like this, and we’ve had success in the past, so we’re not going to change.’ Well, you don’t have to look further than Blockbuster and Circuit City to see how that pans out.”

He adds that when other companies do make a change, their mistake is just dipping their toes into new technology, never fully embracing it. Minsley agrees. “We are all in and have been since the beginning,” he says with a smile.

By Gabe Phillips

By Gabe Phillips

he self-storage industry has always been about maximizing the value of space. While operators focus on optimizing their rentable square footage, many are overlooking significant revenue opportunities right above their heads and across their properties. At Catalyst Power, we’ve worked with numerous self-storage facility owners and operators to help them transform their facilities into modern clean energy hubs. From rooftop solar to EV charging stations, self-storage facilities are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for energy while creating new revenue streams and serving their communities.

The energy landscape is transforming rapidly. U.S. electricity demand could rise 128 GW over the next five years, driven primarily by AI, data centers, and manufacturing growth. The country hasn’t seen that level of growth since the 1980s. Another factor driving demand is the growth of electric vehicles. EV adoption continues to accelerate, with U.S. EV sales growing by hitting a record 1.3 million in 2024, while charging infrastructure struggles to keep pace.

This surging demand is creating a premium market for space that can generate or support energy infrastructure. Self-storage facilities, with their large, unobstructed rooftops and often underutilized land parcels, represent prime real estate in this emerging marketplace.

Self-storage operators have two primary options for capitalizing on their energy potential: direct ownership or space leasing. Each approach offers distinct advantages and considerations.

1. Direct ownership allows facilities to generate their own electricity, potentially eliminating their power bills while selling excess generation back to the grid. This approach provides maximum long-term return on investment but requires more substantial upfront capital and ongoing management responsibility.
2. Space leasing offers a simpler path with minimal upfront investment. Under this model, facility owners lease their roof space or land to energy developers who handle all aspects of installation, maintenance, and operations. This generates steady, predictable income for 15 to 30 years while avoiding the upfront costs of development and operational responsibilities. For many self-storage operators, this “hands-off” approach aligns perfectly with their core business focus while unlocking new value from their existing assets.

Not every self-storage facility is ideal for energy development. Key considerations include roof age and condition, structural capacity, shading from nearby buildings or trees, and local utility interconnection requirements. However, many of the characteristics that make locations attractive for self-storage, like large unobstructed roofs and proximity to population centers, also make them excellent candidates for energy infrastructure.

Many modern self-storage facilities feature extensive flat roof areas with minimal mechanical equipment, making them particularly attractive to developers. While structural limitations may exist, many facilities can accommodate solar installations with minimal modifications.

For facility owners interested in exploring their energy potential, the first step is understanding their options. This typically involves:

• Evaluating your facility’s physical characteristics and electrical infrastructure,
• Reviewing local utility policies and interconnection capacity,
• Consulting with service providers about both ownership and leasing options, and
• Assessing financial implications under different scenarios.

While revenue generation drives most energy decisions, the benefits extend beyond direct financial returns. Energy installations can enhance a facility’s environmental credentials, potentially attracting environmentally conscious customers and improving community relations. Some operators have successfully marketed their clean energy commitments as part of broader sustainability initiatives. For example, my company always issues a local press release to highlight our partner’s environmental credentials, which can generate positive local media coverage.

Additionally, solar installations can provide ancillary benefits like roof protection and reduced heat load on upper-level units. These operational advantages complement the direct financial benefits of energy asset deployment.

Many self-storage facilities have additional untapped energy potential beyond their rooftops. Unused land parcels, buffer zones, and even parking areas can be ideal locations for ground-mounted energy systems. At Catalyst Power, we’ve helped facilities transform these underutilized spaces into additional revenue sources. We recently worked with a self-storage facility in Massachusetts that added both rooftop and ground-mounted solar at the same facility.

Ground-mounted systems offer several unique advantages:

• Optimal orientation for maximum production,
• Easier maintenance access compared to rooftop systems,
• Potential for dual use as covered parking or storage areas,
• Scalability to match available space, and
• No rooftop structural considerations to navigate.

For facilities with available land, ground-mounted systems can complement rooftop installations or serve as standalone projects. Some operators have found creative ways to integrate ground-mounted energy infrastructure with their facility expansion plans, reserving space for future building development while generating immediate revenue from energy production.

While solar offers the most immediate revenue potential, self-storage facilities are uniquely positioned to capitalize on other energy opportunities. EV charging stations can transform parking areas into additional revenue streams while attracting new customers, which is particularly valuable given that storage facilities are often near residential areas and major roads.

Battery storage systems represent another potential option, with utility companies increasingly willing to pay premium rates for grid-supporting storage capacity. U.S. battery storage capacity is projected to grow six-fold by 2028. As the electric grid modernizes to handle more intermittent renewable energy, the value of strategically located storage facilities is on the rise, driving up the value of hosting energy storage.

At Catalyst Power, we’ve seen increasing interest in these “energy hub” approaches where facilities combine multiple technologies to maximize both their energy potential and revenue opportunities. The economics of these integrated approaches can be particularly compelling for forward-thinking facility owners.

The self-storage industry’s evolution continues as operators seek new ways to maximize asset value. Energy infrastructure represents a natural extension of this trend, offering a way to generate value from previously unutilized space. The fundamental value proposition—turning unused roof and land space into revenue—will remain compelling as energy demand continues its upward trajectory. According to the Self Storage Association, the industry encompasses over two billion square feet of space across more than 50,000 facilities in the U.S., representing a massive untapped potential for energy generation.

For facility owners considering energy options, the key is to start the evaluation process now. Whether through direct ownership or space leasing, understanding your options positions you to make informed decisions about your facility’s future.

The energy opportunity for self-storage facilities isn’t just about adding new revenue streams—it’s about optimizing total asset value in an increasingly competitive market. Just as the industry has innovated in storage solutions, adopting energy technologies represents another way forward-thinking operators can stay ahead of the curve.

At Catalyst Power, we’ve seen firsthand how self-storage operators who embrace these opportunities are positioning themselves for long-term success, creating multiple revenue streams while contributing to a more sustainable future. The time to capitalize on these opportunities is now.

By Marc Goodin

ow many square feet of self-storage can be built with $1.5 million in owner’s cash and an SBA loan? Take a guess. If you guessed 80,000 to 85,000 gross square feet, you are pretty good at this. The bad news is a ton of data must be correctly obtained to do the calculations. The good news: If you know the data it takes to run the calculations, you can look for multiple ways to save money as you search for land and develop your facility.

The many variables are never the same from project to project. That’s why it is critical to learn how to determine your site-specific variables and run your calculations early and many times during in the process. Often these calculations are used to determine maximum size or phasing limits to match your available cash. They are also the basis for parcel size needed and preliminary profit and loss (P & L) calculations until you get site-specific information to run detailed P & L calculations and obtain bids from contractors.

The following is a scenario that illustrates the approximate magnitude of owner capital that may be required to build a facility that can provide a suitable retirement income for many owners when the facility is rented at premium rental rates.

Here is a list of the assumptions we used.

• Owner’s cash (excluding bank loan): $1.5 million
• Type of loan: SBA loan with 15 percent down
• Site details: Single-story facility on 5 usable acres
• Land cost: $900,000
• Owner design and soft costs: $600,000
• Most of owner’s carrying costs are borrowed.
• Climate-control mix: 50 percent climate control
• Interest rate: 7 percent (three year interest only)
• Break-even: 18 months
• Occupancy: 90 percent
• Operating cost: 25 percent of income
• The average income is $1.70 per net rentable square foot.
• All-in contractors construction: Cost is $85 per square foot
• Owner construction costs: $3 per square foot
• Construction contingency: 5 percent
• Construction period: 12 months

A $1.5 million owner’s cash as a 15 percent down payment, the SBA loan allows a total project cost of about $10 million.

• Owner’s equity: $1.5 million
• Total project budget: $1.5 million/0.15 = $10 million
• SBA loan: $8.5 million (85 percent of $10 million or $10 million minus $1.5 million equals $8.5 million)

In many cases, the owner’s $1.5 million cash covers the land purchase, pre-lending design/soft costs, and some contingency. That leaves the bulk of the bank loan ($8.5 million) to cover construction, construction contingency, and carrying costs to the break-even point.

Based on the original assumptions, the carrying cost were calculated approximately as listed.

• Operational carrying cost to break even: $285,000
• Bank fee: $235,000
• Construction loan interest: $320,000
• Loan interest to break even: $480,000
• Carrying cost: $285,000 + 235,000 + $320,000 + 480,000 = $1.33 million
• Use $1.4 million for a 12-month construction period and the 18-month post-open period to the break-even point.

The construction budget equals the loan amount minus land cost and design cost minus the carrying costs. The rounded math is $10 million – $1.5 million – $1.4 million = $7.1 million for the contractor’s construction (hard costs).

With $7.1 million available for direct construction and an estimated $85 per square foot construction cost, you can build approximately 83,000 gross square feet ($7.1 million divided by $85 per gross square foot). Assuming a net-to-gross efficiency ratio of 80 percent, the result is roughly 66,000 net rentable square feet (82,000 gross square feet times 0.80).

It can take several hours to do the calculations by hand. Given you want to run the numbers many times with various parameters early on before you have all the exact parameters and then multiple times again as you obtain better data, a calculator (or Excel spreadsheet) is a must. This same data can be used to prepare profit and loss calculations at the same time.

Traditional construction loans often require 30 percent to 50 percent down and do not typically cover operating/interest-carrying costs through break-even. In practice, that can mean you need two to three times the down payment that the SBA approach requires to build the same size self-storage facility. For many busy professionals, leveraging an SBA loan is the pivotal factor that allows them to develop a substantial project with a lower out-of-pocket investment.

This scenario was simplified for discussion purposes. Not all assumptions and nuances are included. Data is typically substantially different from location to location. You must do an in-depth review with your team of experts, including feasibility consultant’s engineers, accountants, attorneys, contractors, and owner’s rep., etc., to determine the buildability, feasibility, costs, and loan options for your specific site and situation.

By Brad Hadfield

orona is Spanish for crown, and the crown jewel of this California town is Cajalco Temescal Storage and RV Center. Although the nearly 400,000-square-foot property operates as one location, it consists of three separate sites, each with their own entrance. Designed by architect Ariel Valle, the main building by GMI Construction and Kiwi II houses 854 units with U-Haul trucks available on site. The two RV lots, divided by a county aqueduct, offer 628 parking spots with canopies courtesy of Baja and Sukut Construction and include wash racks, ice, air, and dump stations.

The project did experience a few setbacks. The city lost the plans, causing a nine-month delay, and only three sign-offs per day were allowed, further prolonging matters. Not long ago, a drunk driver plowed through the property, hitting and damaging the main building. But today it’s smooth sailing, and the property is consistently earning five-star reviews.

Of course, you can’t talk about the size of the property without talking about its sizable community contributions. Owners Temescal Canyon LLC/Sukut Properties are active with Charity Storage, winning awards for most auction earnings. The site manager is also a chamber ambassador, supporting various local businesses and events.

In Flight

By Brad Hadfield

he massive amounts of capital that poured into the self-storage industry in the last 10 years has led to mega-deals like the $12 billion merger of REITs Extra Space Storage and Life Storage, as well as smaller transactions between mid-size companies and independents. Now, the same type of consolidation is happening with self-storage adjacent businesses such as construction companies and software providers. Although this is not new, it appears to be happening with more frequency, so what does it mean? MSM caught up with leaders from Trachte Building Systems, MakoRabco, and Storable to find out what is driving these mergers and acquisitions.

At the tail end of March, manufacturing and construction giant Trachte Building Systems acquired MakoRabco, a leader in self-storage design and construction services. “This strategic combination unites two highly respected brands, creating new opportunities to better serve customers and strengthen industry leadership,” the press release stated.

MakoRabco, of course, had already been through an acquisition of its own. In 2021, Mako Steel acquired Rabco Enterprises. Angie Guerin, executive vice president of MakoRabco, recalls spending a lot of money hiring an advertising thinktank to come up with a new company name, only to arrive at the obvious conclusion. “Probably one of the greatest stories of my professional career was the unveiling of our new name, MakoRabco,” Guerin says with a laugh.

With the Trachte acquisition, there would be no name changes. “We’re not shying away from the fact that we’re under the Trachte umbrella, but keeping our respective brands was important,” says Guerin, who explains that retaining the brand names demonstrates that both Trachte and MakoRabco will continue to do what they do best rather than joining forces to do everything the same way. “Trachte bought MakoRabco for our unique value, not to have us just do what they do. If that’s what they’d wanted, they would probably have just opened up an operation out west or in Florida.”

Brad Relford, president and CEO of Trachte Building Systems, concurs. “The MakoRabco brand carries a lot of cachet in the industry,” he says, while noting that Trachte, MakoRabco, and Trac-Rite [Trachte’s door division] all have different value propositions and customer bases to cater to. He also mentions that MakoRabco is a very asset-light business, focusing on design, engineering, and construction services for self-storage, while Trachte is asset-heavy, focusing on manufacturing in addition to design and erection services. For both of these reasons, he feels maintaining their name was the best go-to-market strategy. “It was better than pushing the two brands together. It also makes the integration process much easier because you’re not forcing it.”

Relford doesn’t think it’s surprising that self-storage-related companies are merging and consolidating as the industry matures and becomes more sophisticated. He would know; Trachte built its first mini-warehouse in 1974 but has been around since 1901, when tinsmiths George and Arthur Trachte began bending metal for buildings. “No one paid much attention to self-storage for years, but now institutional investors are getting into the sector and many more are eyeing the space very closely,” he says. “On top of that, companies want more economies of scale, more market share, and synergies with other businesses. I think those are the things really driving consolidation through mergers and acquisitions.”

Guerin says that Mako Steel saw the writing on the wall in 2019, when self-storage really began getting the attention of Wall Street. “The investment money was about to roll in, so that’s when we transacted to private equity [New State Capital Partners]. We were one of the first notable companies to do that.”

Jim Reinhart, CEO of MakoRabco, thinks the acquisition was beneficial because both brands have strength in different geographic areas and a very high repeat business rate. “There isn’t too much overlap in our customer bases,” he says. “By coming together, we’re widening our footprint and customers benefit from it too, getting a much broader solution set: design service plus additional control over the manufacturing process, timelines, and so on.”

Reinhart says that customer response has been overwhelmingly positive. “Angie and I fielded a lot of phone calls after the announcement, but no one said a thing other than, ‘Oh, well that makes sense. Glad to see you two get together. Now how do we do more business?’”

The response from key stakeholders has also been very complimentary, and the fact that Trachte is 100 percent employee owned is a big plus for MakoRabco. “They’ve joined a larger organization, but the way we’re structured, they know we’re very dedicated and committed to the self-storage industry,” Relford says. “It’s exciting because we’re investing in our future and their future.”

He goes on to describe the Trachte and MakoRabco marriage as the embodiment of a strategic acquisition. Although Trachte had been looking to acquire a complementary company that could leverage its manufacturing capabilities for a while, Relford says luck did have a hand in it. “An investment banker Trachte works with had a past relationship with the private equity owners of MakoRabco. An unexpected connection, but conversations stemmed from there, and eventually everything just fell into place. We consummated the deal on March 21, and it’s been smooth sailing since then.”

Storable is no stranger to mergers and acquisitions, and even though the company only launched six years ago, it’s already one of the most widely known names in the self-storage software space. Since the beginning, CEO Chuck Gordon, who co-founded Storable (and SpareFoot, along with Storable CIO Mario Feghali), has made it a goal to bring many other companies and brands into the Storable fold. Just recently, the company initiated a rebranding effort to further solidify the newcomers’ places within the Storable family.

“The new branding scheme brings everything under the Storable roof, yet addresses each vertical separately,” says Gordon, who proceeds to list them out.

• Storable Easy, formerly Easy Storage Solutions
• Storable Edge, formerly StorEdge
• Sitelink by Storable, formerly SiteLink

• Access
• Collections and CRM (formerly CallPotential)
• Insurance, which includes StorSmart and Bader Insurance
• Marketplace (SpareFoot)
• Websites and Marketing Services
• Auctions, which includes StorageTreasures.com

• Storable Marine, formerly Molo and Stellar
• Storable RV & Camping, formerly Newbook

It may seem like a full plate, but Gordon says it’s designed to take work off customers’ plates. He believes consolidation will simplify Storable customers’ daily operations, making them more efficient and ultimately more profitable. “That’s our philosophy,” he says. “To bring that vision to life, we acquired the leading software companies in the space. Now, customers have a consolidated, all-in-one technology package that lets them do everything they need in one place.”

The argument could be made that just like financial portfolio diversification, businesses need to diversify vendors to protect from potential risks like service disruptions, price hikes, and souring relationships. When asked if customers have ever expressed hesitation about putting all their eggs in one basket, Gordon smiles. “I’ve been asked that question before, and the answer is simple: We don’t lock anyone into a closed system. We have literally hundreds of different vendors who integrate into our API.”

As well-recognized as Storable is, the company probably could force customers to buy all its products. So why doesn’t it? “We support and encourage integrations with third-party tools,” says Gordon. “And I think a lot less people would use our software if we didn’t. We believe that in order for us to win, we need to have choice and our customers need to have choice.” Of course, Gordon isn’t going to argue with a customer if they want to use the full end-to-end suite. “It’s up to us to prove our ancillary products are the best ones so that our customers want to pick them. But they’re never going to have to pick them.”

Chrissy Werner, Storable’s senior vice president of marketing, adds, “I think that in addition to having an all-in-one solution that takes away a lot of complexities for people, it also evens the playing field so operators of all sizes can compete and make more money. Overall, this consolidation is a sign of a maturing industry, which yields itself to innovation.”

With so many brands under one roof, Gordon admits there have been some challenges integrating products. “I wish I could say that it’s always been unicorns and rainbows,” he says with a laugh, “but there have been challenges along the way. What I can say with confidence is that, comparing Storable now to Storable 2018, we are way more mature about how we do everything from evaluating companies and integrating them into our platform. We are very prudent about how we set ourselves and our portfolio up for success in the Storable ecosystem.”

Other significant acquisitions have happened this year—two others just in March alone. Calcumate, the world’s leading 3D storage calculator, acquired Mini Storage Calculator, the self-storage and mobile storage unit calculator. A week later, five self-storage software brands (SyraSoft, DoorSwap, Storage Commander, Space Control, and Domico) partnered up to create SC Navigator, a cloud-based SaaS platform built to streamline self-storage operations (the company declined to comment for this story).

Guerin believes we’ll continue to see more of it. “I think the industry has come into its own,” she says. “We were all like kids in the earlier days. I mean, we had the Mak the Shark logo and all sorts of Mak tradeshow swag that we thought was super cute. But we’ve grown up, and we decided it was time for our logo to grow up too, so Mak just became a nice, clean fin.”

Gordon agrees. “I’m a lot more confident about our ability to do things right and do them well based on all the experience we’ve gathered and all that we’ve learned over the last seven years,” he says. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and the company we’ve built, and we’re excited about the value we’ve been able to bring to our customers. I still feel like we’re at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the efficiency and capabilities that we’re able to bring to the table.”

It seems that just as the self-storage industry has matured, so have the companies leading the way within it.

Product:

Kingspan KS Series and Accent Fin™

Kingspan Insulated Panels North America

By Brad Hadfield

ffering architectural appeal, energy efficiency, and lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete wall assemblies, Kingspan’s insulated metal panels (IMPs) have become the go-to product across a wide range of commercial and industrial construction projects. They’ve been used on educational facilities, sports stadiums, airports, and more, and now self-storage facilities are taking notice.

Manufactured by Kingspan Insulated Panels North America, these high-performance IMPs offer insulated architectural panel and façade systems for design-driven projects and controlled environment panels for climate-controlled buildings. Many of these buildings feature Kingspan KS Series panels, which offer a full air and water barrier and a core of rigid, continuous insulation to help keep building occupants comfortable through the hottest summers and coldest winters.

contact: Karim Muri, Vice President, Marketing Services and Strategy Developments

“We’ve seen a demand from self-storage facility business owners looking to use products that will maximize thermal efficiency and improve performance,” says Karim Muri, Kingspan’s vice president of marketing services and strategy developments. “With QuadCore featuring some of the highest R-values on the market, these panels are an excellent material for climate-controlled self-storage unit construction.”

IMPs are also ideal for self-storage facilities as they are roughly 50 percent faster to install than traditional multi-component wall assemblies. Additionally, as a single-component system, they reduce the number of trades required on the construction site resulting in labor and cost savings for projects. “Speed of installation is a very big commercial driver, as well,” Muri says. “The quicker a facility is completed, the quicker it can start generating rental revenue.”

When it comes to style, IMPs can add architectural flair to any project and are available in a wide range of colors, patterns, textures, and finishes to fit nearly any design aesthetic. With the KS Series panels, architects can achieve distinct looks through a range of profiles, including Azteco™ Embossed, Micro-Rib, Mini Micro-Rib, Mini-Wave, Shadowline, and Vektra.

For example, the KS Mini-Wave wall system provides a continuous sweeping profile that can create a unique wave appearance. For another look, the KS Vektra wall panel, with its subtle inverted V-groove profile, lends an understated elegance and refined finish to any building elevation. The KS Granitstone^® provides still more design possibilities with the attractive look of stucco or natural stone. Architects can also customize these panels with trimless ends and pre-formed corners to provide a clean, finished appearance.

“The KS Series product line features some of our top-selling panels company-wide,” says Muri. “They add an elevated design element to commercial buildings without having to sacrifice performance.”

Accessories always complete a look and that holds true in building design. Kingspan Accent Fin™, for example, works with KS Series panels and Optimo^® IMPs to give facilities a finishing touch. As a joint-integrated accessory, the Accent Fin fits perfectly in the joinery between panels, delivering unique aesthetic dimensions that will turn heads. It also allows architects to get creative, giving them six different shapes to choose from: blade, mini-blade, triangle, a-frame, rectangle, and flat box. This range of shapes can highlight shadow lines and add depth to façades, creating visual interest that gives buildings a more modern aesthetic and high-end architectural look.

“We created the Accent Fin at the request of architects who wanted a new way to highlight the lines when designing buildings with IMPs,” says Muri, noting that Accent Fin, made from extruded aluminum, is available in standard Kingspan colors with customization options also available. “This accessory provides architects with greater design options, so they can create metal panel buildings that look as great as they perform.”

But Kingspan Panels are more than just a pretty face. Their product range powered by QuadCore is GREENGUARD Gold Certified, which screens for more than 360 volatile organic compounds (VOC) and total chemical emissions to ensure that products are not harmful to building occupants and do not adversely impact indoor environment quality (IEQ). All of this contributes to a healthy, more eco-friendly facility.

“IMPs are strong choices for a wide range of building projects, including self-storage buildings,” says Muri. “In fact, these panels are a fit for any project requiring a building envelope solution with strong thermal performance and high style.”

echnology has brought many changes to the self-storage industry in the last half century. I would like to look at some of the technological changes through a legislative prism.

When the storage industry first organized in 1975, newspapers were king for businesses that wanted to communicate with the public. It was just a few years later that Rupert Holmes sang about taking out a personal ad in hopes of finding a paramour, only to find himself back with his own lovely lady. Songs posted on Instagram about finding a new love interest on Tinder were still decades away; Al Gore had not yet invented the internet.

If you wanted to use a more targeted approach for reaching someone with an important message, you opted for the U.S. Postal Service’s then 20-year-old certified mail service. The first commercially available email was still more than a decade away.

So, when states began to adopt lien laws in the 70s, 80s, and even into the 90s, it was logical for legislators to think of certified mail as the gold standard for reaching non-paying tenants and of newspapers as the ideal way to attract potential bidders to the sale.

Starting in the early 2000s, however, the notion of taking out a personal ad in a newspaper started to sound as quaint as dropping a dime in the pay phone or using the Yellow Pages. And the public increasingly saw green cards attached to certified mail as a sure sign of bad news that should be avoided.

These changes in public opinion have only intensified in the two decades since the SSA started its legislative program. In that time, the SSA and state associations have worked to remove outdated legislative mandates and convince states to recognize important changes in technology and consumer preferences.

By now, nearly every state has eliminated certified mail requirements and allows for default notices to be delivered by verified mail or email. Although newspapers stubbornly hang on in a shrinking minority of states, most legislatures have recognized the power of the internet to reach a much broader audience of potential bidders.

The question then is whether you are still processing liens as if it were 1980, 1990, or 2000, or are you making the most of these and other legislative changes to reach customers more effectively, streamline your operations, and save money?

You can find the status of your state’s legislative updates on the SSA’s Legal Resource Center. If you would like to see our government affairs team address any legislative issues in your state, you can always reach me at jdoherty@selfstorage.org.

hree years ago, when we first exhibited at ISS, we were unpacking product samples from cardboard boxes in a hallway. Fast forward to 2025, and we’ve just closed a record-breaking Q1 with our largest trade show presence ever. The question I’m asked most frequently isn’t about our manufacturing process or product specs—it’s about how we’ve achieved such rapid growth in what many consider a down market.

The answer is remarkably simple: We do what we say we’re going to do.

This shouldn’t be noteworthy. It shouldn’t be a competitive advantage. Yet time and again, customers express genuine surprise when we deliver exactly as promised. When we say your shipment will arrive Tuesday, it arrives Tuesday. When we commit to a timeline, we honor it. When challenges arise, and they inevitably do, we communicate transparently and resolve issues with urgency—our newest core value.

The storage industry deserves better than broken promises disguised as supply chain issues or ambiguous timelines. Too many suppliers have conditioned customers to expect delays, excuses, and frustration. We’ve rejected this model from day one.

Our approach is working. This growth hasn’t come from marketing gimmicks or price wars but from building trust through consistency and accountability.

Recently, during breakfast with a potential customer, they mentioned, “That’s what we hear about who you guys are.” Our reputation precedes us because reliable performance speaks volumes in an industry where missed deadlines cascade into costly project delays.

Our teams operate with what I call “PO to CO” urgency; from purchase order to certificate of occupancy, we’re focused on getting customers off their projects so they can start making money. This mindset permeates everything we do, whether we’re serving major developers or local owner-operators building their first facility.

As we expand our product lines to include commercial door series and boat/RV storage solutions, we remain anchored to this fundamental principle. The products may evolve, but our commitment to keeping our word remains constant.

In today’s market, a company that simply delivers what it promises shouldn’t stand out. But until that changes, we’ll continue to differentiate ourselves through reliability, transparency, and unwavering commitment to customer excellence.