This article originally appeared in Commercial Property Executive.
November 2, 2020
With a new platform and plans to deploy as much as $500 million in the next five years, the company has also brought in an executive with substantial experience in the sector.
Using this new platform, Buchanan Street plans to deploy between $350 million and $500 million over the next five years in both acquisition and development of self storage assets in major markets throughout the western U.S.
The low correlation of the self storage sector’s performance to the broader economy makes it an attractive diversifier for Buchanan Street’s investment activities in the office and multifamily sectors, Buchanan Street CEO & President Tim Ballard said in a prepared statement, adding, “we intend to build a significant, long-term portfolio of self storage assets.”
Self storage has historically provided strong yields relative to other real estate, Yacoobi commented. The sector continues to prove its resilience as an asset class and is seeing increasing demand from a consumer standpoint, he added in prepared remarks. According to Yacoobi, the firm’s focus will be on value-add and core-plus opportunities in western U.S. trade areas that are experiencing strong population growth.
Pinning that geography down a little further, Ballard told Commercial Property Executive that the company will focus on “specific markets in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California.”
Before joining Buchanan Street, Yacoobi served as vice president of real estate with the William Warren Group / StorQuest Self Storage, one of the nation’s largest private owner-operators of self storage properties. There, he was responsible for the acquisition and development of self storage properties on behalf of both institutional and private investors.
Yacoobi holds a bachelor’s degree in real estate finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
As we reported in early September, the self storage sector appears to be holding its own during the pandemic. Although there are concerns about overbuilding and some downward pressure on rents, occupancy has generally been stable, and investment has been strong enough to drive cap rates down slightly.