Bay Area Storage Market Sees Increased Demand
By Natalie Dolce
“The local storage market has held up nicely throughout the recession.” So says Bill Hobin, president and CEO of Santa Monica, CA-based William Warren Group, whorecently chatted with GlobeSt.com about a recent self-storage facility buy the firm had—its third purchase the Oakland, CA-area.
A week ago, the firm bought Beacon Self Storage, a 954-unit self storage facility in Oakland, CA, marking its sixth Northern California facility. WWG, which owns and operates StorQuest Self Storage throughout California and several Western US markets, purchased the self storage facility from AGI Capital for $8.8 million.
According to a prepared statement, “the 62,125-square-foot facility is located at 2227 San Pablo Ave. in downtown Oakland and has excellent visibility from the 980 Freeway, a key factor in the transaction for WWG. With a daily traffic count of 200,000 cars, the location offers strategic exposure as WWG expands the StorQuest name in the Bay Area.”
Hobin tells GlobeSt.com that he has seen increased demand from larger numbers of multi-tenant building residents “that need an extra closet that they don’t have in their residential apartment.” He adds that “As downtown Oakland continues its redevelopment phase, we believe the market will continue to improve, and this particular asset is right in the middle of it.”
According to Hobin, “True economies of scale can be achieved by owning and operating multiple self storage properties in one market. This acquisition increases our regional brand visibility and gives all of our properties economic benefit from our expanding StorQuest advertising budget.”
Read entire GlobeSt article here.
The Peninsula Industrial Pros 
This is great Natalie! Thanks for sharing this update! This is cool!