For the last several years, Los Angeles-based Clutter has made a name for itself as a leader in the burgeoning “on-demand storage” industry and a disruptor of the traditional self-storage industry.
Now the company has announced a bold, new strategy: it is expanding into the traditional self-storage space.
“In the spirit of saying ‘yes’ more, we are proud to offer self-storage services to customers who need local access and want to know their belongings are close at hand,” said Ari Mir, co-founder and CEO of Clutter.
Clutter purchased the four-facility Storage Fox portfolio in New York for $152 million. The portfolio offers about 500,000 square feet of storage space combined across its locations in Brooklyn, Long Island City, White Plains and Yonkers. The transaction was funded by a $116 million floating-rate- mortgage loan from Colony Credit Real Estate, Inc.
“This hybrid strategy of self-storage and on-demand storage has been our vision from the beginning. It represents an exciting milestone in our long-term strategic plan to create a platform for people to manage their belongings,” Mir said.
Clutter was founded in 2013 as an on-demand storage service which picks up customers’ items and takes them to a secure off-site warehouse until the customer requests the return of the items. To date the firm has raised nearly $296 million in private capital, with the bulk coming from a $200 million investment in February that was led by Softbank Vision Fund.
This Long Island City location is one of four facilities purchased by Clutter in New York.
In a blog post, Mir lays out the rationale for expanding into the traditional self-storage industry:
We receive calls and emails daily from people who want regular access to their belongings — because they’re operating a small business; e.g., construction, or they want the comfort of knowing their items are close by. Until today, we’ve been unable to say “Yes” to them.
Now, in the greater New York metropolitan area, Clutter customers have the option of on-demand storage and self-storage.
Clutter will rebrand the Storage Fox facilities by November 2019.
Al Harris
Alexander Harris is a reporter covering the business of self-storage. He obtained his degree in journalism from Virginia Commonwealth University. He loves reading Elmore Leonard novels and listening to classic country music. You can call him Al.