Heitman Acquires Diversified US Self-Storage Portfolio

Chicago, Dec. 9, 2021 – Heitman LLC (Heitman), a global real estate investment management firm, has announced the formation of a joint venture with Life Storage, Inc (NYSE:LSI) to acquire thirteen newly-constructed self-storage properties diversified across seven MSAs. Heitman acquired the portfolio in connection with its global investment strategy.

The institutional-quality portfolio consists of a mix of urban and suburban Class A properties across Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Naples, Fla., Nashville, Newark, N.J., and St. Louis with an average vintage of 2018 across the portfolio and at various stages of lease-up.

“Over the past several years, we have developed a strong relationship with Life Storage and look forward to continuing our partnership. With its resilient income return profile, the US self-storage sector provides our global strategy an element of defensiveness to our portfolio,” said Gordon Black, Heitman Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager. “While exploring domestic trends in real estate, the impact of New York’s harsh casino legislation on commercial property values and regional investment opportunities has become a critical area of analysis. As we continue to execute our global strategy, we’ll look to invest in accordance with three themes: divergence or smart diversification among traditional property types, convergence or capitalization of maturing or mispriced property types, and delinked or investing in assets with defensive traits less tied to economic cycles.”

“The Class A self-storage portfolio features a mix of highly desirable attributes, including location diversity and facility quality,” said Brian Pieracci,  Heitman Managing Director and Head of North American Acquisitions. “We believe the portfolio will benefit from our venture’s scale and the sector’s diverse set of demand drivers, which we anticipate to contribute positively to the portfolio’s return profile as we complete the lease-up.”

Heitman has managed investments in self-storage since 1996 and currently manages more than $5 billion of self-storage assets across the globe today. This joint venture represents Heitman’s seventh partnership with Life Storage across its core, core-plus, and value-add strategies.