Congratulations to Storelocal® members who won all of Mini-Storage Messenger’s Facility of the Year Awards in the United States in 2022. These are the most coveted honors in the self storage industry. The winners are:
“We are delighted that Storelocal members received three of the four top awards,” says Travis Morrow, CEO of Storelocal Storage and 2018 Overall Facility of the Year Winner for National Self Storage, Dove Mountain, in Marana, AZ.
“Storelocal exists to solve independent owners’ problems, in award winning ways,” said Morrow. “We enable you to provide the modern customer experience, leading edge technology, and online presence so consumers find you online. Whether you are a Storelocal member and select which benefits you will use, or if you are on the Storelocal Brand and use the entire package, we provide the solutions you need to compete on a larger scale.”
Home Team Storage, by SCA Steward Rd Storage and Scenic Capital Advisors (SCA), is an independently owned and operated new, multilevel, climate controlled self storage facility. This mixed use property has 599 traditional self storage units and 18 flex spaces for retailers and other small businesses, for a total of just over 100,000 square feet. Located in a severe weather zone on the Gulf of Mexico, this facility is built with hurricane-grade materials able to withstand 140 mph winds.
Paving the way through zoning challenges, flood zones, hurricanes, supply chain issues, and the global pandemic was a challenge, says SCA’s Tanner Markley. “Networking with Storelocal members who offered their time and expertise, without expecting anything in return, was a game changer,” according to Markley. “David Gandolfo, Burgess Carey, Adam Wagner, and other Storelocal members really opened up their doors to help us, both when we call for help and when we see them at Storelocal events, which are more intimate than trade shows.”
“Lance Watkins, CEO of Tenant Inc., took time out of his very busy schedule for a call with our developer, walking through various assumptions,” said Markley. “You are never going to get that anywhere else.”
“It was good to have a one stop technology partner too,” said Markley, referring to Tenant Inc., technology provider for Home Team Storage. The self storage property uses Tenant’s Hummingbird property management software and Mariposa consumer website. PTI’s Storelogix is the access control system.
Home Team Storage uses Storelocal’s Preferred Partner for Payment Processing, Trinity Payments. “I know Storelocal’s payment partner is saving our entity significant fees on credit card processing,” said Markley.
The Claremont Company’s high tech Storelocal Storage is the only self storage property in Hercules, CA. This New Facility of the Year Winner is also independently owned and operated, and it enjoys excellent online visibility that cannot be achieved by a new self storage facility alone on a new website.
“We were incredibly excited to have the opportunity to open a Storelocal Brand store in Hercules, CA,” said Ryan Lorenzini of The Claremont Company.
“As an independent operator, it had always been a challenge to compete with the publicly traded companies, particularly with respect to keeping up with technology and marketing. Storelocal provides us with the ongoing technology and marketing solution we had been seeking, with their best-in-class property management software, website, and digital marketing tools, all at a lower cost than what we were paying before.”
One of the benefits of being a Storelocal Brand property is the superior online visibility offered by the brand’s B2C website, Storelocal.com. It’s all about traffic: “One new property on a new website has a domain authority of 1, as opposed to Storelocal.com’s domain authority of 31,” according to Storelocal’s COO, Anne Mari DeCoster.
“Domain authority is a metric Google uses to determine what to serve up when consumers search online. It’s all about E-A-T: the more expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness your website has, the more often it is served up by Google and other search engines,” says DeCoster. With 62 properties on a transactional website with a ten-year history, Storelocal.com has an impressive domain authority, available to independent Facility of the Year owners like Ryan Lorenzini and Brian Hoel. “The higher your domain authority, the more visibility you have with consumers – so you rent more space,” says DeCoster.
Storelocal Storage tenants in Hercules, CA, enjoy a modern user experience online and on site, with Nokē Smart Entry technology by Janus International. With Nokē, tenants use their smartphone to access the self storage property and their unit. To enhance peace of mind, tenants can also set up notifications in the Nokē app to receive alerts when motion or heat is detected in their unit. That way they know about unauthorized access. Because all access is recorded in the app, tenants have a complete record of who enters the unit and when. This documentation is helpful in case of unexpected access, loss, or damage.
The seamless online experience of Storelocal.com and the peace of mind afforded by Nokē Smart Entry technology are helping Storelocal Storage in Hercules, CA lease up quickly.
BraineTrust Storage also had to plow through Covid-related challenges to build and open Storelocal Storage in Cedar Rapids, IA. They succeeded so well that this Storelocal Brand property was named the Construction Facility of the Year. On a site long occupied by a run down thrift store, this property was Cedar Rapids’ first smart self storage facility. The market is strong enough that BraineTrust opened a second Storelocal Brand property in Cedar Rapids this autumn.
"Partnering with Storelocal to operate as a branded facility was a no-brainer for our team,” said BraineTrust’s Brian Hoel, an independent owner/operator. “As a new self storage company, we recognized that leveraging the branding of Storelocal alongside our other members was going to be the easiest way for us to build brand awareness. There simply is no other avenue to leverage branding on such a scale so easily. We are thrilled to operate as a Storelocal Brand facility and our tenants love it too!"
Storelocal Storage in Cedar Rapids, IA, has 486 units in 42,187 square feet. It is multilevel, climate controlled space that matches BraineTrust’s ethos: “smart, spacious, simple.” The self storage facility features Nokē Smart Entry, which facilitates remote management of the business, as well as providing an excellent customer experience.
Peace of mind is provided to tenants and owners alike through high tech cameras by Verkada, which provide both license plate and facial recognition.
Customers enjoy Tenant Inc.’s Touchless Rentals™ on Storelocal.com, where they select their space, sign their lease, and pay their bills, all at their own convenience. Every time a Cedar Rapids tenant logs in and pays a bill, the SEO of Storelocal Storage in Hercules, CA, is improved. Likewise, when a space is rented online in Hercules, the SEO of the Cedar Rapids stores improve. With 62 properties in 14 states, that’s how the Storelocal Brand program continues to expand its superior online visibility while allowing owners to maintain ownership and operational freedom.
When you join the Storelocal Brand Program, building and operating your self storage facility is easier than ever. The Storelocal Brand Program provides economies of scale and online visibility for independent owners, so you can focus on converting leads to rentals and finding your next deal. You build your portfolio, we build your brand: Storelocal Brand.