TEXAS AND NORTH CAROLINA — A subsidiary of CubeSmart (NYSE: CUBE), along with a joint venture partner, has acquired a 36-property self storage portfolio in Texas and North Carolina for $326.2 million. NGKF Capital Markets represented the two sellers, Private Mini Storage and a joint venture between Clarion Partners and Private Mini Storage.
The portfolio totals more than 3 million square feet and includes 28 properties in Houston, seven properties in Austin, Texas, and one property in Charlotte, N.C.
“This truly was one of the most unique portfolio opportunities in the self storage space I’ve ever seen,” says Aaron Swerdlin, executive managing director of NGKF Capital Markets. “The geographic concentration in Austin and Houston, two of the best economies in the country, really accentuated the value of the high-quality self storage portfolio that Clarion and Private Mini had developed and assembled.”
To break down the transaction, Private Mini Storage individually sold six properties, all in Texas, for approximately $68.3 million. The joint venture between Clarion Partners and Private Mini Storage sold 30 properties — 29 in Texas and one in North Carolina — for approximately $257.9 million.
A Clarion Partners press release reported that the 30 properties sold by the joint venture were 88 percent occupied at the time of the sale.
“Our initial objective in assembling this portfolio was to acquire high-quality assets in desirable growth areas along highly visible traffic corridors and to add value by expanding the assets, modifying unit mixes, improving management and executing some ground-up development,” says Jason Glasser, a senior associate at Clarion Partners. “We have achieved our objectives, stabilized the assets and are now taking advantage of solid market fundamentals to sell the portfolio to operators in the sector.”
CubeSmart owns and operates a portfolio of more than 400 self storage facilities around the country. The company’s stock price closed at $15.12 per share on Thursday, up from $14.15 a year ago.
Swerdlin and Kenneth Cox head up NGKF Capital Markets’ Self Storage Group, having handled more than $5 billion in transactions in the sector in their careers. NGKF Capital Markets is an arm of real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, which was founded in 1929 and today operates more than 320 offices on five continents.
— John McCurdy