Gordon Burnam, Hall of Famer

Thanks for coming to the self storage blog, our diary of self storage.

One great reason to attend the Thursday morning sessions at the Self Storage Association meeting in a few weeks is to see the first class of Self Storage Hall of Famers. I will be tickled to see Gordon Burnam inaugurated. Gordon Burnam is a big part of how PhoneSmart got started and how I got involved in PhoneSmart. Gordon also has a great story of how he got started in self storage.

Gordon was a builder who was building houses and apartment complexes in Columbia Missouri. He owned a few apartments and was getting established as an owner/developer. Columbia Missouri is one of those college towns that started growing and developing over a hundred and fifty years ago and has never really slowed down for a minute. Gordon was one of those guys in the right place at the right time with a good plan. He was courageous enough to create some momentum and some luck.

There was never any time for Gordon to take time off in the summer as it was busy building season, so he used to take a time off in the winter and pack up the kids and head south for nice weather. On one trip to south Texas in maybe 1972 or so, the family hit a patch of rainy weather. The kids were getting fidgety, so Gordon and his wife Mickey loaded the kids in the car and went for a drive. They drove by a row of garage doors and a sign that said “mini-warehouses”. A little alarm went off in the back of Gordon’s mind and he knew he had to check this out. So they pulled in and visited with the site manager. Gordon was intrigued. He asked for a copy of the lease, which the site manager gave him and the family loaded back into the car and continued their vacation.

When Gordon got home, he was determined to build one of these mini warehouses in Columbia. It sounded like a landlord’s dream: good rental per square foot rates without plumbing. Gordon talked to his banker friends who all told him he was nuts. That probably just encouraged him and he found a way to finance the first project. That project is still renting units and is the location for the home office of the StorageMart companies and PhoneSmart.

One of Gordon’s banker friends bought into the vision and signed on as a partner. The first of the Burnam storage companies was born. Over the years all kinds of opportunities presented themselves. All of Gordon’s and Mickey’s kids eventually joined Gordon in the business. There were several incarnations of multiple facility portfolios that morphed into other opportunities. Many of you may remember Storage Trust, which was the 4th or 5th largest storage company in the country when it was bought it in the late 90s. That was a Burnam project. The current incarnation is StorageMart with over 50 facilities around the country.

Although Gordon is no longer active in the day to day management of the business, his influence and legacy is felt throughout the company. He is very deserving of the recognition he will get on September 8th. If you have a chance to visit with him, you should.

It was with Gordon’s urging that PhoneSmart was created to provide extra rentals to the StorageMart stores and to its other clients. So here we are, poised for the next opportunity. From my standpoint, the next opportunity is coming in the next phone call we field for one of our many clients. Maybe it will be a rental we help create for your store.

Tomorrow is the last day to enter the contest to win a registration at the SSA show from the self storage blog. Look at yesterday’s submission for details.

Bye for now,
Tron

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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