Storage developer Marc Slayton is set to open four new self-storage facilities in and around New York City over the next sixty days.
The facilities, two in the Bronx and one in New Rochelle (pictured above), will be operated under Slayton’s newly launched GoodFriend Self-Storage brand, which already has four operating facilities in the metro region and the fourth in Brooklyn through a joint venture with Metro Storage out of Chicago, IL. The upcoming facilities span 60,000-square-feet of net rentable space to 80,000 square feet..
Slayton is president of Post Management Self-Storage, which has developed and operated more than 5 million square feet of space, mainly in the NYC metro area.
No easy task
Slayton said finding appropriate sites in the competitive New York market is no easy task.
“The environment is incredibly competitive with many new players to the market,” Slayton said, “It’s hard to find deals that make sense economically and away from the competition.”
Slayton said the four projects were first conceived three to four years ago—and there are more where those come from. Slayton has several more projects starting construction this fall through the spring of 2017.
Slayton said in addition to his own projects he has also participated in two additional joint venture storage projects that were recently completed in the boroughs. Together, those projects span 150,000 rentable-square-feet.
The upcoming GoodFriend facility at 1320 Zerega Avenue is scheduled to open in April.
Pocket markets
While the amount of new storage supply has increased in New York recently, Slayton said there are still specific neighborhoods that lack enough supply to meet demand for storage space.
“The key is to find the pocket markets where there is very little competition and are very difficult to penetrate, to build, or acquire,” Slayton said.
New York has seen a fair amount of new storage development over the last couple of years, but new zoning regulations proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio will create a more challenging environment for storage developers. de Blasio’s plan will end by-right development of self-storage in certain industrial zones.
“They are in areas you want to be,” Slayton said, “But not all the areas.”
Tighter restrictions
Slayton said the new regulations will make gaining approval for storage projects more difficult and add significant risk, but he said that he isn’t deterred from pursing more projects in the city.
“Some of the areas are overstored areas, so I’m not going in there anyway,” Slayton said.
