US Storage Centers has added another 1,346 units to its Southern California portfolio with the purchase of a 140,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles. The firm is focused on buying Southern California properties and buying class-A properties with a certificate of occupancy. To find out more about the firms strategy and expectations for the year, and to get some insight into the self-storage investment space this year, we sat down with Charles Byerly, president and CEO of US Storage Centers, for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: What are your your expectations and goals for 2018?

Charles Byerly: We expect similar volume of deal flow in 2018 compared to 2017, but with the mix of deals being more lease up and certificate of occupancy deals as opposed to stabilized deals we were seeing over the past few years. We continue to develop new properties and look for acquisitions that contain a certificate of occupancy.

GlobeSt.com: Self-storage is one of the asset classes that is seeing disruption from technology. What are the biggest changes you expect to see in the self-storage market this year?

Byerly: Disruption has certainly been swirling around the self-storage industry. Our goal at Westport is to be the best at what we do by investing in our platform, people and technology. We continue to monitor potential disruptors and position our platform to perform through any potential issues.

GlobeSt.com: What has been driving this asset class?

Byerly: First and foremost, self-storage investors are looking for yield. As a relatively new asset class, new investors are entering the self-storage market every day as they feel more comfortable entering a new product type with the growth of sophisticated third-party managers like Westport.

GlobeSt.com: How have the players changed, and what is competition like?

Byerly: The self-storage market is comprised of REITs, national operators, regional operators, large and well-capitalized private equity firms. Unfortunately, many are relying on the golden days of double-digit growth in their models, which is no longer happening.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.

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