LOS ANGELES—Storage Etc. Development LLC has acquired a three-property self-storage portfolio from AMS Group for $16.4 million, GlobeSt.com reports exclusively. The three properties are located in prime infill locations in Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.

“The buyer is a growing private company, and this was an opportunity to get some scale in the growing Southern California market with the purchase of a number of properties in good submarkets that have never traded before,” Fred Cordova, an EVP at Kennedy Wilson Brokerage Group who represented the buyer in the transaction, tells Globest.com.

The three properties are located at 8369 Garvey Ave. and 2747 La Presa Drive in Rosemead, a two building property, 21320 Golden Springs Drive in Diamond Bar and 863 Town Center Drive in Pomona, and total 158,000 square feet. The seller developed the property and operated it. This is the first time any of the assets in the portfolio have traded hands.

The seller wanted to sell the whole portfolio in one piece rather than as three separate transactions. “We had competition from REITs and private companies across the spectrum. The large REITS only control about 10% to 20% of the market nationwide, so there is a lot of smaller enterprises that make up 80% of the market,” says Cordova.

The self-storage facility industry has been performing very well this year, and Cordova expects the industry to continue to grow. In fact, according to a Marcus & Millichap report earlier this year, the vacancy rate in Los Angeles is trending below the national average, at 11% with the national vacancy rate at 14%.