Courtesy / Maine Realty Advisors
Maine Ave Self Storage at 676 Maine Ave. in Farmingdale was one of two of the company’s facilities that together sold for $3,632,500.
Updated: November 7, 2022
NH group scoops up five self-storage facilities in off-market deals
Courtesy / Maine Realty Advisors
Skowhegan Self Storage at 240 Waterville Road in Skowhegan sold for $800,000. The business comprises 13,500 square feet of self-storage and 2,500 square feet of office and warehouse.
Five self-storage facilities totaling 78,000 square feet were scooped up by a New Hampshire buyer for a total cost of $6,332,500 in off-market deals.
Involved were three sellers and one buyer.
- Henry & Jean Travers sold Skowhegan Self Storage to Skowhegan Self Storage LLC by for $800,000. The business is located at 240 Waterville Road in Skowhegan and comprises 13,500 square feet of self-storage and 2,500 square feet of office and warehouse.
- Wood Storage Properties Inc. sold Winthrop Self Storage to Maine Street Self Storage LLC and Winthrop Self Storage LLC by for $1.9 million. The business has two locations — at 70 Route 133 in Winthrop and 2193 U.S. Route 202 in Winthrop. Together, the facilities comprise 20,300 square feet of self-storage and 1,800 square feet of office space.
- Manchester Self Storage LLC sold Maine Ave Self Storage to Maine Avenue Self Storage LLC and Gardiner Self Storage LLC by for $3,632,500. The business has two locations — at 110 Lewiston Road in West Gardiner and 676 Maine Ave. in Farmingdale. Together, the facilities comprise 40,000 square feet of self-storage.
Ben Spencer of Maine Realty Advisors brokered the deals.
“It’s a sellers' market in the self-storage industry,” said Spencer.
Cold calls
Self-storage facilities are one of those things you drive by and don’t think much about. It turns out they can be an attractive sector with low-maintenance returns and value-add opportunities.
Spencer identified the facilities in a series of cold calls. He said the southern Maine market for self-storage has been pretty well picked over by large companies that are now working their way north.
“A lot of people built these self-storage facilities years ago and didn’t realize what they were worth,” he said of the sellers market.
Sellers of Skowhegan Self Storage and Winthrop Self Storage were looking to retire and didn’t have any ambition to keep growing their portfolios, he added.
Hands-off investment
The buyer was the Herget Group, a Portsmouth, N.H., investment management firm focused on investments in, and servicing of, companies in various industries, according to its website.
One of the group’s focus areas is self-storage.
Spencer said he became acquainted with Herget through previous deals.
Herget Group principal Tanner Herget “traded owning and managing multiple hospitality businesses” to enter the self-storage business in 2018, “acquiring multiple such properties over time while modernizing operations in each instance,” Spencer wrote in a blog post.
Self-storage in Maine is seeing growing demand as an ease-of-ownership sector.
“It’s a metal building on a slab with doors and lights. There are no tenant complaints to field, no issues with the HVAC, the plumbing or the decor,” Spencer wrote.
He added, “By itself, all of that spells ‘green light’ to more hands-off investors, especially in southern Maine where high per-unit prices make investing in this sector all the more potentially profitable.”
He added, “The self-storage industry is a growing market and Maine investors are seeing the benefits of this sector become increasingly desirable and profitable.”
Rising interest rates could have a bit of an adverse affect on the sector’s market value going forward, he said.
Both Maine Ave Self Storage facilities are high-quality and in little need of improvements, he said.
The Skowhegan Self Storage and Winthrop Self Storage properties have value-add opportunities in terms of expansion on the acreage and improvements of the facilities.
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