Aaron A. Swerdlin, director of CBRE's Self Storage Advisory Group tells GlobeSt.com that the portfolios, each at least five years old, consists of a seven-property portfolio with more than 360,000 sf in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, with an economic occupancy of 56% to 82%; a 76,000-sf, 96%-leased holding in the Washington, DC metro; and an 81%-occupied asset, the size of which is not being disclosed, in New York City. Three buyers are waiting in the wings to close the deals.

Just last week, the CBRE team closed a $114-million sale of a class A portfolio. The Memphis-based Storage USA bought six properties in New York and New Jersey from a joint venture led by Walton Street Capital LLC of Chicago and sold a four-asset package in the New York City metro to a local player, Old Pond Associates. The acquired package had an economic occupancy of 63% to 80% and the sold one ranged from 50% to 70%.

To date this year, the CBRE team has hawked $161 million of self-storage assets. Swerdlin credits the strong activity to readily available debt and an increase in buyers. "This is just such a diverse pool of buyers and a diverse criteria for buying that the appetite for deals is as good as we've ever seen," he says in a press release. "What encourages me most, is the level of sophistication and the overall financial resources of the newcomers to the industry. With this much institutional attention, the bar has permanently been raised."