Storage Pros Management LLC, which specializes in the acquisition, development and management of self-storage facilities in the eastern states, is in the process of selling the majority of its owned assets. The company has agreed to sell 37 properties to a joint venture led by a Chicago-based institutional investment firm for $242.5 million. It has closed the sale on the first 30 facilities, with the remaining seven expected to close during the first quarter of 2016, according to the source. All disposed assets will be managed by an undisclosed self-storage real estate investment trust, according to David Levenfeld, president and CEO of Storage Pros.

The portion of the portfolio being sold comprises more than 2.4 million square feet, including nearly 600,000 square feet of boat, RV and vehicle storage. The facilities are in Florida (3), Massachusetts (7), Michigan (17) and Tennessee (10).

Following the close of the seven remaining properties, Storage Pros will own 14 self-storage facilities. The company plans to build back its operating portfolio through acquisitions and development. “We plan to continue strategic, value-add acquisitions and, as well, we are actively developing self-storage facilities in the Northeast corridor, from the Boston area, down to metro [Washington, D.C.],” Levenfeld told the source.

NGKF Capital Markets, a group within commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, represented the seller in the deal. “This transaction is one of the largest this year in the self-storage industry and further solidifies the big-transaction trend of the last several years,” Aaron Swerdlin, executive managing director of the NGKF Capital Markets national Self Storage Group, said in a press release.

Storage Pros is a privately owned company founded in 2007. Prior to the sale, it owned 51 facilities in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Tennessee. It also manages five facilities in Michigan.

Sources: