n the eastern edge of Toronto, with one of the Great Lakes to the south, is Scarborough, Ont. This diverse district is known for its natural landscapes and is home to the iconic Scarborough Bluffs, a series of dramatic cliffs offering panoramic views of Lake Ontario and its beaches below. It boasts cultural festivals, global cuisine, green spaces and trails, shopping districts, and educational institutions. Some would say it is the perfect mix of suburban charm and urban amenities.

But it wasn’t always this way. By 1998, Scarborough comprised almost half of Toronto’s poverty-stricken areas. Poor city planning had led to urban sprawl, and reports of gun-related crime in pockets of the city added to its stigma. One REIT that apparently didn’t mind the undesirable location was InStorage, which counted a small facility at 345 Danforth Road among its many properties.

However, the facility wouldn’t stay in their hands for long, as StorageMart had its eye on the entire InStorage portfolio.

“We’d been in Canada for almost a decade when InStorage came out of nowhere and began expanding rapidly,” recalls Cris Burnam, CEO of StorageMart. Throughout 2007, InStorage purchased several portfolios, bringing its holdings up to almost three million square feet of leaseable space. “We were left wondering how exactly they were doing it,” Burnam says.

He began looking closer at InStorage’s growth trajectory and realized that the REIT was dramatically overpaying for property. “Turns out, they were great at raising money but not too savvy about self-storage. We began buying stock in the company and took them over in 2009.”

After the buy-out, the Scarborough facility was rebranded as StorageMart, but due to its blighted location, not much else was done with the little 18,000-square-foot, first-gen facility. But we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves, so let’s go back to the beginning.

StorageMart, headquartered in Columbia, Mo., operates facilities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The company was founded by Gordon Burnam in 1999, though he had been in the self-storage industry since 1974. In time, his children (Mike, Cris, Tim, and Kim) would join the business, making self-storage a true family affair.

Together, the family unit grew their brand Storage Trust Realty, taking it public in 1994 by listing it on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1999, when the company was operating over 180 self-storage facilities across 16 states, Public Storage bought them out in a deal valued at about $400 million, solidifying Public Storage’s position as the largest self-storage developer in the country at the time. The sale of Storage Trust Realty freed the family up to begin a new endeavor, and StorageMart was born that same year. Ten years and many facilities later, StorageMart took over InStorage. “In 2009, exactly 10 years after Public Storage took us over,” adds Burnam. This greatly expanded the company’s Canadian presence, and today there are 315 StorageMart locations across North America and the U.K.—a total of 21 million square feet. The company earns about $500 million in revenue annually.

Now, back to the property in Scarborough. This gen-one facility was in for an overhaul. “Over the last 15 years, the Scarborough area gentrified and really came a long way,” says Burnam. Additionally, its location near Warden Woods Park, the Ontario Mosque, several beaches (including Pine Point, Ferry Beach, and Higgins Beach), and the neighborhoods of Oakridge, Birchmount Park, Birch Cliff, and Woodbine Gardens meant a lot of potential new traffic and tenants. “Seeing all of this happening, it got to the point where this small gen-one just wasn’t economical,” says Burnam. “It presented a great opportunity for redevelopment.”

However, building in Canada is normally quite challenging. “Permitting is increasingly onerous,” Burnam says. “Getting zoning changes is time-consuming, and permit fees can be five to 10 times higher than in the United States. Plus, many city councils just aren’t overly fond of self-storage, nor do they always understand how it works.”

Thankfully, this wasn’t the case in Scarborough. “The city was receptive to this redevelopment project as it was eliminating an older, dated property and bringing in a newer, contemporary facility. They looked at it like, ‘out with the old, in with the new,’” laughs Burnam. So, although there wasn’t a lot of red tape to cut through for this particular build when it came to the city officials, that didn’t mean construction would be quick. “We started during COVID, so the timeline went longer than expected. Including planning, it took a total of four years,” adds Burnam.

Part of the planning process involved developing a vertical facility; because the facility occupied such a small piece of land, the only way to go was up. “The original facility was one level and sat on less than two acres. Now, the new facility is five stories,” states Burnam, adding that it boasts 80,000 new rentable square feet and is more than 100,000 square feet in total—a far cry from the original’s 18,000 square feet.

The Scarborough location was also designed with the Canadian climate in mind. “Summer can get warm, but the winters here can be particularly harsh,” he says. To accommodate any season, the facility is 100 percent climate controlled and the loading bay is fully enclosed. Other facility features include video surveillance, gated access with individual PIN entry, brightly lit common spaces, large industrial elevators, and free moving carts. The property also has staff members on site to handle maintenance and assist tenants and walk-in customers, although all inbound calls are handled by the StorageMart call center in Columbia, Mo. “This lets staff focus on the property at hand,” says Burnam, adding that the call center actually handles all of StorageMart’s inbound calls (Canada, U.S., and U.K.). Finally, Burnam notes that the exterior of the building is also meticulously groomed. “We have the landscaping bills to prove it,” he chuckles.

The facility opened for business in February 2024 and has been doing very well, but as with everything, Burnam refuses to rest on his laurels. “We’re now the official storage providers of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” says Burnam, noting the Leafs fans are known for their loyalty to the team and are considered the No. 1 hockey fan base in the league. “We think that passion will translate into tenants, and we’re ready to show off this state-of-the-art Scarborough facility, outfitting it with the Leafs’ insignia and logos. Team members will also be sporting Leafs gear. It’s a great time to be a Leafs fan, and a great time to be in the self-storage industry!”