StorageMart has completed the acquisition of 17 self-storage facilities in Missouri and Kansas from Safety Mini Storage.
The deal makes Columbia, MO-based StorageMart the largest privately held operator of storage facilities in the Kansas City metro area.
The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. The 17 facilities have more than 1,000 units and 1.5 million square feet of rentable space.
Family business
Safety Mini Storage was owned and operated by Ward Development & Investment, a real estate company based in Grain Valley, MO.
Tony Ward, a principal of the company, said his company was not looking to sell its self-storage portfolio, but StorageMart approached it with an attractive offer.
We’ve been working on this acquisition for a number of years, and we’re really excited to finally be adding the Safety portfolio to our stores in the Kansas City metro area.
— StorageMart CEO Mike Burnam
“Cap rates and pricing in the self-storage industry coerced us into selling the package,” Ward told The SpareFoot Storage Beat. “Self-storage has been the majority of our business for a very long time, so it was somewhat sentimental [to sell it].”
George Ward, Tony’s grandfather, built the family business’ first self-storage facility in Blue Springs, MO, in 1968. Tony’s father, David, is president of Ward Development & Investment.
Tony Ward said the company won’t be getting back into self-storage anytime soon, as the deal includes a non-compete clause preventing it from re-entering the Kansas City market.
Bigger footprint
The addition of the Safety Mini-Storage portfolio brings the number of StorageMart locations in the Kansas City market to 30. In all, the company has 163 facilities in the U.S. and Canada.
“Safety was a pioneer in the storage industry in western Missouri,” StorageMart CEO Mike Burnam said in a news release. “We’ve been working on this acquisition for a number of years, and we’re really excited to finally be adding the Safety portfolio to our stores in the Kansas City metro area.”
The acquisition is the second large portfolio deal StorageMart has completed this year. In April, the company bought a multistate portfolio from Budget Storage, concentrated in the Des Moines, IA, market. The 18-property portfolio was sold for about $59 million, according to property records. That deal included one facility in the Kansas City area.
Burnam said the company plans to upgrade the Safety Mini Storage facilities with new lighting, gated access and video monitoring.
Among the facilities purchased by StorageMart is this property in Olathe, KS.
Here is the list of the newly acquired StorageMart facilities:
- 24610 E. U.S. Highway 50, Lee’s Summit, MO
- 465 S.E. Oldham Parkway, Lee’s Summit, MO
- 3920 S. State Route 291, Lee’s Summit, MO
- 2500 S. Hub Drive, Independence, MO
- 16855 E. U.S. Highway 40, Independence, MO
- 12300 N.W. Outer Road, Blue Springs, MO
- 2300 S.W. U.S. Highway 40, Blue Springs, MO
- 620 N.W. Jefferson St., Grain Valley, MO
- 9200 N. Oak Trafficway, Kansas City, MO
- 13750 Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO
- 280 N. Church Road, Liberty, MO
- 7101 Stewart Road, Pleasant Valley, MO
- 7401 State Ave., Kansas City, KS
- 1285 W. Dennis Ave., Olathe, KS
- 24200 W. 43rd St., Shawnee, KS
- 1044 E. Santa Fe St., Gardner, KS
- 850 E. Warren St., Gardner, KS
