Selecting Your Next Storage Facility Location

This blog is about what goes into selecting a good location for a self storage facility.  Selecting the correct location for a self storage facility can be a difficult task.  There are road blocks that stand in ones way of making a location decision.  An obstacle that one faces is zoning.  Selecting a site that is zoned correctly for the type of self storage facility that you wish to build is vital.  To determine the way in which a property is zoned you will have to look at zoning maps of the city in question.  Zoning will determine what can be built on a site. 

A factor to consider when choosing a site is demographics.  Demographics are the population statistics of the sites surrounding area.  These statistics are vital in determining the market demand and suitability of a particular site.  If a site has demographics showing average age of 60 and a mean income of $35,000 you should consider a different site.  Statistics show that the average self storage customer is between the age of 44 and 56.  Because of this you should attempt to find a site with an average age falling between these parameters.

Also in the self storage industry a strong driver is consumer spending.  Due to the importance of consumer spending you will want to choose a site showing demographics with as high of average income as possible.  For example, a site with demographics of a three mile range surrounding the site showing $90,000 of average income and an average age of 48 would be great population statistics for a site. 

Demographics are not the only thing to consider when choosing a site.  Location is the most important factor to consider when choosing a site.  An old real estate saying goes, It is all about location, location, location.  This saying is never truer than when it is applied to the self storage industry.  A facility located a block off of the main road will never produce the same kind of business as a facility that lies on a busy four lane road. 

Locations are separated into classes, A B and C.  A wise self storage CEO and self storage association president once said, My class A is fronted by a road with 50,000 cars per day, smell McDonald’s and see Walmart.  While this is more humor than anything it also has some truth to it.  To be a good site you need more than simply a good location you need good businesses surroundings your site.

Another thing to consider when choosing a site is the state or province that you are considering.  Real estate taxes work differently in nearly every state.  Because of this you must take into account the added or decreased effect that higher or lower real estate taxes will have on your facilities expenses.  More then likely real estate taxes will be one of the single greatest expenses that a storage facility will incur.  For this reason, real estate taxes should be a major priority when you are looking across the map to select a self storage site. 

Written by a self storage real estate analyst

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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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