Growing our scale – on the right terms
We are taking a very conservative approach to acquisitions and developments in the current capital market environment. However, we may consider attractive buying opportunities in conjunction with institutional investors acting as the primary financing source. To date, we haven’t seen much distress in the self-storage acquisition market, which speaks to the stability of our sector and our product type.
Over the years, Extra Space Storage has earned an excellent reputation in the self-storage industry. No one knows this better than our longtime joint-venture partners, including Prudential Real Estate Investors, TIAA-CREF and Heitman, which have invested nearly $1.5 billion in equity with Extra Space Storage. Our successful performance gives us opportunities to approach both existing and new joint-venture partners with a proven track record.
Beyond our scheduled 2009 development completions, we are proceeding cautiously. Our 2009 development pipeline is expected to be 14 properties for a total cost of approximately $155 million, with minimal equity funding requirements. Self-storage development has a three- to five-year completion timeframe, and we are looking to the future, not just the next 12 months. As always, we are targeting the best self-storage markets with low supply to position ourselves for success.
