The Hampshire Cos., a private real estate investment firm and self-storage operator, has opened a new self-storage location in Westwood, N.J., in partnership with First Westwood Realty LLC. The 100,000-square-foot facility offers 916 climate-controlled units. It’ll be branded and managed by Extra Space Storage, a self-storage real estate investment trust and third-party management company, according to a source.

The property at 15 Madison Ave. is between Irvington Street and Washington Avenue in historic downtown Westwood, near the Eleven Madison Avenue restaurant and Westwood Hills Apartments. It was designed by SNS Architects & Engineers PC to blend in with the area’s aesthetics, featuring a brick façade, covered loading areas and elevators, a source reported.

“Our goal is to create the best-looking building we can. If someone looked at this building, they would probably think it was an office building or a residential building if it wasn’t for the Extra Space sign,” said Jon Hanson, founder and chairman of Hampshire.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the grand opening on Oct. 12. Hampshire and Extra Space executives were joined by Mayor John Birkner Jr., city council president Chris Montana and other community members.

Headquartered in Morristown, N.J., Hampshire has than 60 years of experience in acquiring, developing, leasing, repositioning, managing, financing and disposing of real estate. Since 2012, the company has developed 52 storage facilities with an aggregated value of more than $585 million. It’s partnership with Extra Space includes 37 properties and is expected to reach more than 50 deals, according to a source.

Earlier this year, Hampshire sold a six-building industrial portfolio in New Jersey for $146.9 million. The properties in Carteret, Lodi, Saddle Brook, South Hackensack and West Caldwell totaled 1.2 million square feet of space.

Based in Salt Lake City, Extra Space owns or operates 1,513 self-storage properties in 38 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. The company’s properties comprise approximately 1 million units and 114 million square feet of rentable space.

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