SmartStop Asset Management, LLC (SmartStop) announced on March 14, 2019 that real estate investment programs sponsored by the firm have raised an aggregate total of approximately $77.5 million during the first two months of 2019. Year-over-year, SmartStop-sponsored investment programs raised 282 percent more during January and February 2019 than during the same two-month period in 2018.
SmartStop is a leading sponsor of public and private commercial real estate investment programs focused on student housing, senior housing and self storage assets.
“Demand for alternative investments that are non-correlated to traded equities continues to grow as wealth advisors and individual investors increasingly recognize the inherent benefits of portfolio diversification.”
H. Michael Schwartz, chief executive officer, SmartStop Asset Management, LLC
“We are committed to providing our advisor partners and their clients with investment programs that can provide income and potential appreciation while avoiding the volatility inherent in traded securities. Additionally, our focus on defensive and recession-resistant real estate asset classes provides advisors and investors with additional hedging and diversification options that many find appealing.”
Based on data provided by third-parties that track sales information in the industry, SmartStop has been among the fastest-growing sponsors of non-traded alternative investments in recent years, having raised in excess of $1.75 billion of investor equity since 2008.
The company has 128 self storage facilities under management throughout the United States and Toronto, Canada, comprised of approximately 80,000 units and 9.5 million rentable square feet. SmartStop’s real estate portfolio also includes five student housing communities with approximately 2,800 beds and 1.1 million square feet of space, as well as four senior housing communities with approximately 650 beds and 500,000 rentable square feet of space.
SmartStop is the sponsor of three public non-traded REITs: Strategic Storage Trust IV, Inc., and Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc., both focused on self storage assets, and Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc. focused on student and senior housing assets. SmartStop is also a national sponsor of Section 1031 exchange offerings using the Delaware statutory trust structure. SmartStop has a track record of full cycle REIT liquidity events, including the all cash merger of Strategic Storage Trust, Inc. with Extra Space Storage in October 2015 for $13.75 per share and the all cash merger of Strategic Storage Growth Trust, Inc. with Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc. in January 2019 for $12.00 per share.
