Westport Properties Completes LA Storage Facility

The company paid $5.4 million for the development site back in 2019.

US Storage Centers Los Angeles. Image via Google Street View

Westport Properties has added another self storage property to its US Storage Centers brand. The company has finalized the construction of a 1,182-unit facility in Los Angeles. The 157,116-square-foot project has been in the works since 2019 when Westport paid $5.4 million for a 2.2-acre parcel at 4800-4830 Valley Blvd.

The three-story building offers climate-controlled units ranging from 25 to 300 square feet. The property has digital surveillance and includes a conference room for community meetings. The facility is located within a mile of California State University and roughly 6 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Westport’s new property is one of 13 facilities within a 3-mile radius, offering residents of Ramona Gardens, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights and Omaha Heights only 2.6 net square feet of storage per capita, Yardi Matrix data shows.

The company, which already has a sizable self storage portfolio in Greater Los Angeles, is keen on further investing in the market due to its low penetration rate, Charles Byerly, CEO of Westport Properties, said in a prepared statement.

An undersupplied market

According to a recent Yardi Matrix report, Los Angeles remains considerably undersupplied, with less than 5 net square feet of storage space available per capita, significantly under the roughly 7 net square feet national average. As of November 2021, projects under construction or in the planning stages accounted for 10.2 percent of existing stock, marking an increase of 30 basis points over October.

Meanwhile, asking rates in Los Angeles continue to be one of the highest across major markets, second only to San Francisco. The average rent for the standard 10×10 non-climate-controlled unit was $203 in November, up 6 percent year-over-year.