Self-storage real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage has launched a blog to educate readers about the industry. Found at ExtraSpace.com/blog, the online commentary aims to entertain via a variety of viewpoints and topics. Contributors will include Extra Space representatives and the occasional guest. The company encourages readers to post comments, questions and ideas so content can be tailored to their needs.

"We hope this blog will give readers a humorous, yet practical way to learn about storage and see why Extra Space Storage is the right choice when looking for a storage provider," said James Overturf, senior vice president of marketing.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space is a real estate investment trust that owns or operates 860 self-storage facilities in 34 states and Washington, D.C. The company's properties comprise approximately 570,000 units and more than 62 million square feet of rentable storage space.

The U.K.s Big Yellow Self Storage helped collect and store football (soccer) gear for children in Zambia.

The Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust Zambian Appeal 2011 collected football boots, playing kits and shirts for local communities. The donation drive began nearly a year ago. The Big Yellow Self Storage facility on Drakes Way stored the donations until they were shipped this week.

Formed in 1991, the Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust is one of 72 league clubs affiliated to the Football League Community Trust, which delivers sporting and social opportunities to people within their communities.

Big Yellow Self Storage has more than 50 facilities in the United Kingdom, with most concentrated in Greater London.

ReserveAStorageUnit.com has launched an online storage-unit reservation website. Online users can research and reserve a storage unit online, and also obtain coupons and discounts.

ReserveAStorageUnit.com features more than 3,500 self-storage facilities in the continental United States and offers limited coverage for storage in Hawaii and Alaska. Customers can search for climate- or non-climate-controlled self-storage units, vehicle storage or mobile storage. The website also includes information on post-office boxes.

ReserveAStorageUnit.com has partnership agreements to power the website with listings provided by USstoragesearch.com, a third-party online self-storage directory, and with listings provided directly by several self-storage operators. The storage units found on the website represent the real-time availability of units available.

Customers who do not wish to book their storage reservation online or have questions about a facility or unit can receive help from the websites customer-service centers call agents, who available every day.

The site is currently completing software integrations that will allow consumers in outlying U.S. territories, Australia, Canada and much of western Europe to reserve storage online as well.

The board of directors for Extra Space Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust, declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share on the companys common stock for the fourth quarter 2011. The dividend is payable on Dec. 30 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 9.

In early November, Extra Space released operating results for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Revenue was up 4.9 percent compared to the same quarter a year prior, while net operating income was up 7.3 percent. Quarterly funds from operations were $0.32 per share.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space is a real estate investment trust that owns or operates 860 self-storage facilities in 34 states and Washington, D.C. The company's properties comprise approximately 570,000 units and more than 62 million square feet of rentable storage space.

By Tatsuya Saji

The self-storage business is growing slowly and steadily in Japan, especially in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. According to a recent study by private marketing-research company Yano Research Institute, the size of the Tokyo self-storage market in 2010 was more than 26 billion yen ($340 million), and it's growing. One of the reasons is the huge demand for the service.

There are approximately 128 million people living in Japan, an island smaller than the state of California. Typical two- and three-bedroom houses are 80 to 100 square meters and cost 20 million to 35 million yen or more, depending on how far they are from major cities and train stations, schools, shops, etc. The Japanese generally live in smaller houses in areas of higher population density. Living space in Japan is 13 times more dense than that of New York City. Needless to say, people are hurting for more space.

Lack of Awareness, Legal Concerns

Operators of self-storage businesses in Japan face many of the same challenges U.S. operators once experienced. One of the biggest obstacles is public awareness of the service.

The Japanese dont yet recognize self-storage as a convenient lifestyle option. We call self-storage facilities trunk rooms, suitcase rooms or shunou box (storage boxes), as units are much smaller than those in Australia, Canada and the United States. People know what they are but not how to effectively use them.

Also, the price of self-storage might seem a little too expensive for general consumers for what they get. It seems the overall marketing strategy needs a few improvements to create better public awareness.

Two other obstacles Japanese operators regularly grapple with is rental agreements and  tenant defaults. Many use rental agreements based on the 1991 Act on Land and Building Lease, which was made to better protect tenants. Its not an uncommon practice to hold off on auctioning unpaid units or delinquencies. Instead, operators will move a units contents or hold them for long period to avoid a possible legal mess. In addition, rental agreements among operators vary greatly in their language. The Rental Storage Association of Japan is working toward standardizing these agreements to protect operators.

Simply renting a unit is vastly different in Japan than it is in the United States. Many operators have a tendency to shy away from renting multiple units within the same day. Bringing a truckload of personal goods to the facility and renting a unit is almost impossible in Japan. The process in which to secure a unit needs to be simpler.

Most Japanese self-storage companies operate facilities with no onsite manager. Quraz, one of the major operators, is an exception. The companys style of operation and service is similar to that of a U.S. facility in many ways and is rated high in the country.

Financing New Construction

The Japanese self-storage industry is still in its infancy and relatively new to general consumers and financial institutions. A lack of awareness is one of the biggest obstructions for operators when it comes to financing and marketing. Its hard for new investors to enter the self-storage business. Most financial institutions in Japan dont recognize or have enough knowledge of the business as a main category of real estate.

Major banks in Tokyo might consider financing a self-storage project, but interest rates would be 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent higher than those of other real estate projects such as apartment complexes, office buildings or other traditional rental properties. For self-storage development, the hurdle is much higher in general, and lenders or investors require high-rated credits and security for new projects.

In addition, there are still many self-storage facilities constructed using freight containers as storage units. These are often lucrative because they require less investment. While theyre less expensive to rent, they dont have the security features of traditional self-storage. However, many cost-conscious consumers cant differentiate between the two products. Many operators would like to see stricter zoning ordinances to control locations where facilities with freight containers are built and operated.

A Flexible Offering

The Japanese yearn for the American lifestyle. For many, its only in movies where people get to have large houses with extra space and rooms for hobbies or whatever your heart desires. People pay extra fees for outdoor parking near their residences, as they dont have private garages. It may be hard to believe, but having a private garage for your car is a dream for the average Japanese.

One way the Japanese market is overcoming the lack of space is through a new flexible offering. Reise Inc., one of the country's top storage operators with approximately 360 traditional self-storage facilities in Tokyo and Osaka, is expanding its business share with new rental-space ideas. The companys head engineer and designer came up with the Reise Hobby concept for new flexible space that can serve as a storage/garage/hobby room. It features a secure indoor garage and space for automobiles or motorcycles on the main floor, and a mezzanine or full floor on the upper level.

Reise currently operates fives of these new hobby-concept locations. Each achieved nearly 100 percent occupancy within a few months of opening. The average rent is between 78 million yen to 93 million yen ($1,000 to $1,200) a month. Theres also a waiting list for new tenants. The rooms are not designed as apartments, so tenants are not allowed to live there, but people seem to enjoy the lifestyle with extra private space away from their homes. Reise is planning to build more and is already discussing a rental-rate increase.

While the self-storage market in Japan is growing, operators and investors still face many changes, including finding suitable land for development, a lack of readily available financing, legal questions  and, most important, public awareness. However, the driving demand for the service will help the industry overcome these obstacles and continue toward growth and prosperity.

Tatsuya Saji is CEO of Trade Winds International Inc. Hes lived in United States for  more than 30 years and worked as a consultant for the self-storage industry in Japan, where hes involved with the largest and only government-endorsed self-storage association, the Rental Storage Association of Japan. For more information, e-mail rsaji@trwinds.com .

Strategic Storage Property Management LLC, the property manager for real estate investment trust Strategic Storage Trust Inc., named Ken Morrison as its new president. Morrison will oversee the companys growing portfolio.

Kens proven track record of increasing revenue and controlling expenses through hiring, training and retaining strong, cohesive teams will help solidify our goal of delivering the industrys best customer service, said CEO H. Michael Schwartz. Were excited to have Ken join the team.

A native of California, Morrison previously worked for Public Storage for 14 years, starting as district manager in 1998 and later becoming senior vice president of northeast operations. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing 300 facilities in 11 states with more than 37 district managers. Within one year, he had effectively achieved his goal of rebuilding Public Storages northeast division.

Strategic Storage is a fast-growing and progressive organization that mirrors my own vision and values, said Morrison. I am extremely honored to play an important role in the company's development and expansion efforts. What sets it apart is the executive teama solid group of real estate veterans who are open to innovative ideas.

Since the launch of Strategic Storage Trust in 2008, the portfolio of wholly-owned properties operating under the SmartStop brand name has expanded to include 79 properties in 17 states and Canada.

Self-storage operator StorageVault Canada Inc. reported results for the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30. Highlights include:

• Revenue from storage and related services increased by $227,675 to $973,275, representing a 30.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
• Net operating income from properties increased by $108,125 to $546,684, representing a 24.7 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
• Cash flow as measured by funds from operations increased by $45,981 to $246,498, representing a 22.9 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

In November, StorageVault announced entered an agreement to acquire a self-storage facility in Calgary, Alberta, for $3 million. If all conditions of the agreement are met, the sale is expected to close by Jan. 31. The facility on 1.5 acres has more than 400 units, with approximately 35,000 square feet of rentable space. StorageVault intends to develop and operate a Canadian PUPS portable-storage business in conjunction with this acquisition.

This year the company also opened new PUPS portable-storage locations in Cambridge, Ontario, and Nanaimo, British Columbia.

StorageVault owns and operates several self-storage facilities and PUPS portable-storage franchises in Canada. As at Sept. 30, the company's portfolio included 131,600 square feet of self-storage and 84,400 square feet of portable storage.

StorageVault owns and operates Trans Can Mini-Stor in Regina, Kenaston Self Storage in Winnipeg, B&B Mini Storage in Cambridge, and Parksville Mini Storage in the Regional District of Nanaimo. Each of these sites operates in conjunction with a portable-storage business. StorageVault also owns and operates a standalone PUPS facility in Saskatoon. In addition, it manages five self-storage facilities and two PUPS franchises in southern Ontario.

Big Yellow Group PLC, a U.K. self-storage operator, released operating results for the six months ending September 2011. Highlights include:

• Occupancy growth of 250,000 square feet across all stores in the period, compared to 209,000 square feet in 2010. This is an average of 3,900 square feet of growth per store.
• Store revenue for the six months was up 7.4 percent (£31.9 million).
• Annualized store revenue was up 10 percent from March 2011 to £65.8 million.
• Cash inflows from operating activities (after net finance costs) increased by 14 percent to £13.5 million for the period compared to £11.9 million in 2010.

The company opened a store in Eltham during the six-month period, and another in Stockport in September. Development is underway for new facilities in New Cross and Chiswick, slated to open in February and May, respectively.

"In what is our seasonally strongest period, we have delivered a solid performance, with improved occupancy growth across the portfolio compared to the same period last year, said Nicholas Vetch, executive chairman. This performance has been pleasing, particularly in light of the continuing pressures on the consumer and muted economic environment coupled with the historically low level of housing activity.

Big Yellow operates more than 60 self-storage facilities in the United Kingdom.