20-Property Self Storage Portfolio Refinanced with $185M Loan
Värde Partners provided Metro Storage and Fremont Realty Capital with a floating-rate loan.
A joint venture between Metro Storage and Fremont Realty Capital has refinanced a 20-property, multi-state Class A self-storage portfolio with a $185 million floating-rate loan provided by global alternative investment firm Värde Partners.
The bridge loan, structured by Talonvest Capital, has a three-year initial term with two one-year extension options. It will be used to refinance the existing debt on the portfolio.
The portfolio has a total of 14,215 units over 1.55 million net square rental feet. It is comprised of state-of-the-art facilities in mature markets across six states: Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Officials at Minneapolis-based Värde Partners said the portfolio provided an opportunity to partner with experienced institutional companies in the self storage industry. The firm expects the self storage sector to continue to benefit from current market dynamics including population growth and higher home prices. The sector is also described as being less sensitive to economic downturns with generally low maintenance and capex needs.
Värde Partners provided a $60.9 million two-year, floating rate construction loan in February to Barrington Brothers to refinance a $60 million construction loan originated by Trez Capital in March 2022 to build The Kavista, a 282-unit, eight-story multifamily property in Miami.
Metro Storage moves
Based in the Chicago area, Metro Storage has more than 85 stores in the United States across 12 states with a total of more than 6.1 million rentable square feet. Earlier this month, Metro Storage opened a newly constructed three-story, 80,600-square-foot storage facility in Eagen, Minn., with 686 units. The property features an enclosed, heated drive-through space designed to accommodate tenants during Minnesota’s harsh winter months.
In July 2023, Metro Storage opened an 81,400-square-foot facility in Wall Township, N.J., with 558 units. Earlier that year, the company expanded its Florida portfolio with the opening of a new three-story, 675-unit property in Spring Hill, Fla.
Metro Storage and Fremont Realty Capital, the real estate private equity business unit of the Fremont Group, the investment office of the Bechtel family of San Francisco, have been longtime development partners. FRC has made investments in non-traditional and traditional real estate across the U.S. and Europe totaling more than $5 billion of total capitalization. In June 2022, a joint venture of FRC and Steadfast Development sold Crestavilla, a 201-unit luxury senior housing property in Laguna Niguel, Calif., for $115. 6 million.
