Morgan Stanley Gains Interest in Safeguard Storage

NEW YORK CITY-Morgan Stanley Real Estate’s Prime Property Fund and Safeguard Storage Properties have formed a joint venture with Safeguard’s management team. The venture has acquired one additional property to bring its total capitalization to more than $400 million. New Orleans-headquartered Safeguard owns 56 self-storage stores totaling approximately 3.2 million sf, comprised of both operating properties and stores under development.

Dave Hardman, managing director and US head of real estate investing at locally based Morgan Stanley, tells GlobeSt.com that Prime was attracted to Safeguard’s “strong development pipeline and urban infill location strategy.” Among the key market cities for Safeguard are New York City, New Orleans, Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia. “Positive self-storage fundamentals include an increasingly mobile population and strong population and renter-household growth,” he notes, comparing the fundamentals to the multifamily marketplace, but believes the self-storage arena will deliver better yields in the near term.