Self-storage company prepares for growth

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, the business he created in Wiltob withhis wife, Judy, has growjn over the past decade from 100 unitsw to 1,000, half of which are locatedr in a 70,000-square-foot, climate-controlled building. Morrise also has town approval to build asecond temperature-controlled structure that would abuty his 3-year-old building. But he temporarilty abandoned his steady-as-you-go strategy. This winter, he invested $1.1 million to buy a frozen storage warehouse ona seven-acr e parcel that wraps around one of his self-storagd complexes near the I-87 “I was faced with a decision. Step up and make a move becausw it was an opportunityI wouldn’tr see again,” Morris said.
“Irt was a lot of monety in a down market.” The size of the propertyu will allow him to constructanothere 1,000 storage units if and when the demand is Slow and steady growth has been the hallmar k of many self-storage business owners across the said Robert Schoff, president of in Tucson, and chairman of the trade group. “Aw lot of people have gotten started by building a littlde slab with 50 units and expanding from Schoff said. High returns have drawn investora and small business owners tothe industry, said John president of Investment Real Estate LLC, a Pennsylvania brokerage and managementg company.
“I got in the businessd after I saw how good the numbere were after brokering one dealin 1997,” Gilliland said. His companyt manages 50 storage facilities throughoutfthe Northeast, and until about two years ago oversa w a complex off Route 50 in Ballston Spa. The annual return on investment can run as high as 24 to 27 while major markets with heavy competitio n typically generate 13 to 19percentt returns, Schoff said. Morris, who is know best locally for running WJ MorrisExcavating Inc. for the past 30 started his self-storage company in 2000 becauss it wasa low-overhead business. “Everything we do has alwaysd beenthat way.
We don’t do too much or over extend he said. His excavating company has grown to 20 employeea withroughly $5 milliob a year in annual revenue. “When we were getting we used to dig graves saidJudy Morris, Bill’s wife. Now Judy overseeds the two-complex Morr-is-Stored business with the help of her sistefr and surveillance cameras that she can monitor from the office or The business hastwo locations, one of which is a climate-controlled building that caterw to museum customers, people with high-ends furniture, 50 students and several pharmaceuticaol salesmen who by law have to stor their drug samples at specified temperatures.
“It’s a good but it’s not a build it and they will come,” Schof said. The self-storage industry has endured the recessio better than most sector of the real estate investmenttrust industry, Schoff said.