Self-Storage Real Estate Firm Merit Hill Capital Hires Chief Operating Officer

Real estate firm Merit Hill Capital LP, which acquires, owns and manages self-storage facilities nationwide, has hired Anne Hawkins as chief operating officer (COO). She has nearly two decades of operational-leadership and investing experience, according to a press release.

Most recently, Hawkins served as COO of self-storage for Morningstar Properties LLC, which operates more than 85 facilities. Having led a team of 200-plus employees in more than 10 states, she’s credited with driving several strategic initiatives to deliver exceptional financial performance, the release stated.

Prior to her employment with Morningstar, Hawkins was executive vice president at STR Inc., a division of commercial real estate firm CoStar Group. She helped build the company’s competitive benchmarking and analytics in new sectors, including self-storage. She was also an investor with Great Hill Partners LP, a growth-equity fund, and Thoma Bravo, a private-equity fund focused on software and technology. She earned degrees from the University of Georgia and Harvard Business School.

“Anne brings a wealth of experience, a strong network and a differentiated background that will be invaluable to Merit Hill as we scale to meet the rapidly expanding opportunity set ahead of us,” said Liz Schlesinger, founder and CEO of Merit Hill. “Anne's appointment comes at a transformational time for both Merit Hill and the self-storage sector as we continue to grow and diversify our investor base. I honestly cannot imagine hiring a more perfect addition to complement our existing, experienced construction and asset-management team and to enhance our unique value-add strategy.”

“Merit Hill has built an incredible franchise in the self-storage sector under the visionary leadership of Liz,” Hawkins said. “The firm is uniquely positioned to purchase self–storage facilities within a still fragmented industry and capitalize on robust industry fundamentals to deliver sector-leading results. I am excited to join the team and build on the firm’s spectacular track record, deep industry relationships and strong support from investors.”

Based in New York, Merit Hill operates 130 self-storage properties in 30 states. Its total portfolio includes 234 properties comprising 15.6 million square feet in 33 states.

Source: PR Newswire, Merit Hill Capital Hires Anne Hawkins as Chief Operating Officer