Cohen Investment Group Buys 21 Self Storage Properties

The Copper Safe Storage portfolio totals more than 3,000 units across five states.

Marcus & Millichap broker self storage portfolio

Copper Safe Storage portfolio. Image courtesy of Marcus and Millichap

Cohen Investment Group is expanding its self storage holdings with the acquisition of Copper Safe Storage, a 21-property portfolio totaling 3,058 units across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee from Bill and Bob Copper. The sales price was not disclosed.

The Greenhalgh Storage Group of Marcus & Millichap, including Eddie Greenhalgh, Senior Associate Jake Payne and Associate Lee Thornton, represented the sellers and procured the buyer. Greenhalgh, Ryan Nee, John Leonard, Mickey Davis and Jody McKibben are the brokers of record for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee respectively.

Greenhalgh, first vice president investments & senior director, Marcus & Millichap’s Self-Storage Division, said in a prepared statement the sellers have a rapidly growing management company called Copper Storage Solutions that will continue to manage the portfolio utilizing their fully-automated, unattended model.

Payne stated the new owners will benefit from continued rent growth, increased occupancy, expansion and stabilization.

Growing Portfolio

Hugh Cohen, president of Cohen Investment Group, said the acquisition would enable the firm to expand in the Southeast and Midwest. The privately owned commercial real estate investment firm focuses on self storage, multifamily, student housing and retail assets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern United States. The firm currently has assets in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Iowa and Texas.

Last month, Cohen Investment Group acquired IN Self Storage, a four-property portfolio totaling 136,150 square feet in Aubrey, Flower Mound, Fort Worth and Wylie, Texas. Marcus & Millichap also represented the seller and buyer in that transaction. The facilities are located in high-growth corridors throughout Dallas-Fort Worth and represented the company’s first investment in Texas.

In December, Cohen Investment Group paid $58.8 million for Castleton Commerce Center, a self storage facility in Virginia Beach, Va., previously owned by Prime Group Holdings. At the time, it was the firm’s largest acquisition with 18 buildings on 29 acres totaling 390,380 rentable square feet.