$250M acquisition facility secured for self-storage equity fund

HOUSTON, August 23, 2021 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has arranged a $250 million acquisition facility to finance the purchase of a 30-property, operating self-storage portfolio from five separate sellers totaling 23,389 units across 11 states, including Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The acquisition includes, but is not limited to, a 100-percent ownership stake of StayLock Storage, and will be the 40th storage company rebranded to Storage Rentals of America.

JLL worked on behalf of the borrower, SROA Capital Fund VIII, to place the three-year, floating-rate facility with Goldman Sachs. The facility is structured to fund acquisitions from five separate sellers of new properties as well as expansion projects at existing properties for SROA Capital Fund VIII, which will be hosting its final close for investors in the coming months. This investment brings SROA Capital Fund VIII’s total investments to over 4 million rentable square feet.

“The facility provides us with the ability to quickly transact and implement our value add strategy before we lock in longer term fixed rate financing maximizing yield and total return for our investors,” said Benjamin S. Macfarland III, CEO of SROA Capital.

The properties house 3.1 million rentable square feet with a weighted average physical occupancy of 89.4 percent. The average population and median household income within a five-mile radius of the portfolio properties are 80,000 and $55,500, respectively. Following takeover, all 30 properties will be managed by Storage Rentals of America, which currently manages nearly 100,000 units totaling over 11 million rentable square feet across 19 states.

The JLL Capital Markets team representing the borrower was led by Senior Director Griffin Guthneck, Managing Director Brent Bowman and Analyst John Williamson, along with Managing Director Matthew Schoenfeldt.

“The facility’s flexibility and favorable funding covenants allow SROA Capital to close quickly on new acquisitions and execute post-takeover business plans,” Guthneck said. “The facility was structured to finance acquisitions of cash flowing properties and pre-stabilized lease up assets, as well as capitalize ground-up expansions at existing properties.”

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

For more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.