Equity Based Services, Inc

EBS has been in the press this week. Two interesting articles to note. The First was an article that was featured in today’s (Oct 5, 2009) edition of the San Diego Business Journal. The article was titled “Recession Good for Self-Storage Sector?” with a subtible of “Equity Based Services Sees Sales Rise, Others Don’t”.

The SDBJ article was written by Mike Allen who interviewed EBS Principal Troy Downing as well as other local San Diego storage operators.

The article basically pointed out that EBS was reporting strong gross income and occupancy numbers as other operators were not. The main discrepancy in these reportings can be attributed to location. EBS has been very diligent about locating markets that are conducive to the operation of Self Storage Facilities. Targeting micro economies, infill locations, and stabilized product has allowed EBS to maximize the performance of these properties fully leveraging their operations with EBS’ inhouse management company, AAPMI.

EBS has more than a third of its portfolio in Texas, which has continued to be a strong growth economy. The rest of EBS’ portfolio is in targeted, sun belt areas that have also, for the most part, shown strong rental numbers in spite of a downward trend in the macro economy. There are definately a few spots that are flat, but, overall, EBS has enjoyed upward trends even in the first quarter of 2009. EBS’ overall growth in gross collections from rent has increased by 13.1% over the last 12 months and this is not including ancilliary income from truck rentals, retail sales, cell towers, or billboards.

EBS still sees opportunity in stabilized, class-A product in established markets and will continue to capitalize on these opportunities in the forseeable future.

The other article of note is in this month’s Mini-Storage Messenger published by Minico, Inc.

In the October issue, there is an article by Yours Truly, Troy Downing regarding opportunities in Self-Storage. The article is an attempt to make sense of the Commercial Real Estate Markets as they relate to the Self Storage Industry, as well as the lending and development markets. In this article, I discuss what I see as the opportunities for successful acquisitions and investments in the Self Storage Commercial Real Estate Space.

The Mini-Storage Messenger article can be found in the October issue of their glossy Trade Magazine, or, online at: Opportunities In Self-Storage