Monday, October 31, 2011

Casino Self Storage in Moorpark sells for $10.5 million


Bancap Self Storage Group Brokers Another Lender-Owned Storage Property.

Bancap has successfully brokered the sale of the Casino Self Storage property located in the city of Moorpark in Ventura County, California. I was the exclusive listing agent and sole broker in the transaction. The sale was facilitated by special servicing company LNR Partners, LLC on behalf of a CMBS fund that had foreclosed on the property earlier this year. The buyer was Public Storage, a publicly traded REIT, which will re-brand the property with its name.

This is a classic example of a very desirable first class property that was just over-leveraged in a very difficult economic climate. It is the nicest storage facility in the city and it should perform very well in the long run.

The property sold for $10.5 million on an “all cash” basis. This was much less that the property’s outstanding debt at the time of foreclosure. Although physical occupancy was over 85%, economic occupancy was approximately 66%, offering further upside potential to the buyer. The facility’s gross potential income at the time of closing was approximately $1,078,000 per year.

Casino Self Storage contains nearly 85,430 net square feet of self storage space divided into 822 units, including 91 climate controlled units. The attractive two-story project was built in 2005 and is located on Los Angeles Avenue (also known as State Highway 118) on a highly visible corner in retail and commercial oriented location. The buildings are constructed of concrete block and stucco with metal partitions, roofs and doors.

There have only been a handful of foreclosed storage properties listed for sale in Southern California in the past few years and we have been the exclusive listing broker for most of them. There are plenty of buyers looking to “steal” lender owned properties, but we have been able to obtain very good and fair prices for the sellers – usually millions of dollars more than the “direct offers” received from potential buyers and other brokers before our listing and marketing of the property. Self storage is such a unique property type and it takes a specialist with proven expertise and experience to maximize value for sellers in this unique property niche.

If you have a self storage property that you may be interested in selling for maximum value, please contact me!