Strategic Storage Growth Acquires Two Facilities for $13.3 Million
Strategic Storage Growth Trust (SSGT), formerly known as Strategic Storage Opportunity Trust, recently announced that it has acquired two self-storage facilities. One is located in Las Vegas, Nevada while the other is located in Fort Pierce, Florida. Both facilities will be rebranded under the SmartStop Self Storage trade name.
“Our goal for Strategic Storage Growth Trust is to capitalize on the next wave of development and lease-up properties that will become available over the next five years,” Chairman and CEO of SSGT and Strategic Storage Trust, H. Michael Schwartz. He continued, “We acquired the Las Vegas and Fort Pierce facilities due to the properties’ low occupancies as compared to properties we currently own and manage in the same trade areas, which have higher occupancy levels.”
The Las Vegas property, located at 4866 East Russell Road, was purchased for approximately $9.45 million. The 14 building facility was built in 1999 and consists of 1,210 units as well as a retail office and manager’s apartment. Currently, the property is approximately 68% occupied.
The Fort Pierce property is located at 3252 North US Highway 1 and was constructed in 2008. The property has approximately 770 units and 88,400 net rentable square feet in a three-story building with a retail office. It was purchased for approximately $3.85 million and is 42% occupied.
All properties acquired by SSGT will be branded under SmartStop.
“These sites are perfect examples of the latest generation of self-storage buildings, especially the Fort Pierce site,” added Wayne Johnson, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for SSGT. “This site represents a great opportunity to purchase bank-owned real estate that has been through a management transition over the past two years. By incorporating these sites into the SmartStop management and advertising platform, we expect to grow occupancy to stabilized levels.”
SSGT is an entity of Strategic Storage Trust, a company launched in 2008. Strategic Storage Trust has 126 self-storage facilities in 17 states and Canada. Its portfolio consists of approximately 80,000 units and 10.5 million rentable square feet of storage space, all branded under the SmartStop trade name.
On June 17, 2013, SSGT commenced a private offering of up to $109.5 million in shares of common stock. As of January 17, 2014, the company had sold approximately $0.9 million in shares pursuant to the private placement offering.
Presumably as a result of the slow capital raise, SSGT, on January 22, 2014, elected to register a public offering of up to $1.095 billion in shares and upon commencement, terminate the private offering.
