Scandinavian self-storage operator Pelican Self Storage opened two new facilities in March, one in the Sydhavnen area of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other in the Ala-Tikkurila area of Helsinki, Finland.

The Danish facility is a five-floor, well-lit building along the Sydhavnsgade/Scandiagade highway, a very visible location. It covers 6,350 square meters (about 21,000 square feet) and has 800 units. It's surrounded by a dense, residential neighborhood.

"Now being operational for four weeks, we have seen a huge interest and demand for self-storage and our customers are welcoming our sevices," said Allan Agerskov, chief operations officer.

The next Pelican facility in Denmark, which will be the fifth in the country, is already fully planned and will open in Brøndby at the end of this year.

In Finland, Pelican has four facilities, all in the Helsinki area. The sources did not share as much information about the new Ala-Tikkurilla facility, though photographs show it is near a highway that encircles the city and near the city's large, international airport.

Pelican Self Storage was founded in 2009 with capital from a U.S. pension fund and Nordic Real Estate Partners. The company plans to establish facilities in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

U.K. self-storage company LoknStore on Blatchford Road in Horsham is supporting local charity Horsham Matters in its fundraising efforts this year.

Created by Horsham Churches Together in 2009, Horsham Matters enables churches in the Horsham District to offer support to the community through various social programs. Through the organizations Community Charity Centre in Guildford Road, the charity sells secondhand furniture, ornaments, toys and other household goods to raise money for its programs.

In the community for 17 years, LoknStore is working with the charity on several fundraising projects. LoknStore operates 22 stores across South East England.

Southern California operator A-1 Self Storage recently donated funds to Sharp HospiceCare hospice homes, supported by the Grossmont Hospital Foundation. Grossmont is a not-for-profit, philanthropic organization that was established in 1985 to enhance the current and future healthcare needs of California's East County and San Diego communities.

Sharp hospice homes offer an alternative to nursing-home placement or hospitalization. Their multidisciplinary staffconsisting of  registered nurses, social workers, bereavement counselors, spiritual-care counselors, certified home-health aides, volunteers, cook/homemakers and a medical directorprovides around-the-clock patient care and support for family and friends. Sharp HospiceCare currently operates two hospice homes: ParkView Home in Del Cerro, Calif., and LakeView Home in La Mesa, Calif.

According to the Sharp website (Sharp.com), the Grossmont Hospital Foundation has raised and allocated more than $60 million to Sharp Grossmont Hospital, Sharp HospiceCare and other operating areas of the hospital over the past 25 years.

A-1 Self Storage has 17 locations in the San Diego County area and more than 40 locations statewide. It is the self-storage division of the Caster Cos., a third-generation, family-owned company headquartered in Southern California since 1959. Caster Cos. develops and manages A-1 Self Storage, A-1 Car Storage and other commercial properties in California. Its portfolio includes more than 4 million square feet of real estate.

Manhattan, N.Y.-based self-storage operator Storage Deluxe has entered into a contract to pay roughly $18 million for an industrial property at 2115 Queens Plaza North in the Long Island City section of Queens. The company plans to build two buildings on the site, one for traditional storage and the other for fine-art storage. The fine-art storage building will be branded as SD Fine Art and become the brand's second location in New York City.

The 105,000-square-foot building is currently owned by owned by Graybar, a St. Louis-based distributor of electrical, communications and data-networking products. The building has been on the market for more than a year, according to the source. The company was initially asking $25 million for the property.

The acquisition comes almost six months after Storage Deluxe shared plans to sell 22 existing facilities in the New York area to CubeSmart for $560 million. Earlier this month, Storage Deluxe opened a 84,000-square-foot facility in Brooklyn. The company paid $6.5 million for that industrial property last year and renovated it.

The current SD Fine Art location is in the Bronx, three miles from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and was completed in 2006. It offers climate-controlled units, as well as other specialized services.

Founded in 1998, Storage Deluxe has seven facilities in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and another six coming soon in those three boroughs, according to the company website.

South African self-storage operator Stor-Age recently participated in two charitable campaigns to benefit children in need.

First, the company co-organized the Create Happiness drive, an annual collection of toys, clothing and other children's goods. Stor-Age locations succeeded in collecting enough donations to fill units of various sizes, with the Western Cape store filling the largest space: a 28-square-meter unit.

Second, the company used Facebook to run a fundraising campaign for The Children's Hospital Trust, which benefits a Red Cross hospital in the Western Cape area. The campaign promised Facebook users that for every new Stor-Age "fan" added over a certain time frame, the company would donate a designated amount to the trust. The end result was a 5,000 rand (about $613) donation, which Stor-Age Business Development Manager Robbie Cameron delivered to the trust's office in early March.

"I had visited the hospital before and, in fact I was once a patient [there]," Cameron said. "I had the pleasure of visiting the children a few months ago and was so encouraged by the helpful and friendly staff, as well as the fortitude that the kids showed through their difficulties. It was quite inspiring to see how all the children could still put a big smile on despite their issues, and this must be a testimony to the magnificent doctors and nurses that work here."

Stor-Age has 13 locations in mostly urban areas, such as Cape Town and Johannesburg, with six more locations listed as "coming soon" on the company website.

The Illinois Self Storage Association (ISSA) is finalizing plans for the 2012 Great Lakes Self Storage Owners Summit, which will take place June 6 at the Conrad Hotel & Resort in downtown Chicago. Sponsored by real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage and self-storage insurance provider Bader Co., this event replaces the Great Lakes Self Storage Expo that was hosted by the ISSA in past years.

The Owners Summit will include presentations and panel discussions targeted to self-storage executives, owners, operators, investors and developers. It will begin at 12:45 p.m. with a keynote presentation by Robert Mathias, principal of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, one of the largest private equity real estate investment firms in the self-storage industry. Harrison Street has ownership in more than 110 facilities. Other presentations will address operational insights and innovations, current investment trends, the capital markets, self-storage facility values and more. The day will conclude with a cocktail reception.

Online registration is available at www.glss-expo.com.

The ISSA has reserved a room block at the Conrad for attendees at a discount rate. Interested parties should call 312.645.1500 and mention the association when making their reservation. The deadline for room-block reservations is May 11.

Dymon Self Storage, a Canadian self-storage operator with several locations in Ottawa, is partnering with Soles4Souls Canada, a Canadian shoe charity. Shoe donations can be made at any of the companys locations.

Dymon Self Storage and participating sponsors hope to collect 200,000 gently worn shoes in April as part of Sole4Souls Canadas Million Shoe Mission. Collected footwear will be sorted then distributed among several local Ottawa social agencies including Somerset West Community Health Centre, Ottawa Carleton Immigration Services, Ottawa Mission, Harvest House Organization, St. Marys Home and Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa.

The remaining shoes will be shipped to the Soles4Souls distribution center in Nevada where they will be sorted and shipped to other charitable organizations worldwide.

Soles4Souls has distributed more than 17 million pairs of shoes since its inception in 2004. The charitable organization has also responded to more than 40 natural disasters worldwide with relief aid.

By Joseph P. Niemczyk

While attending the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I encountered a mob of people who were falling all over themselves to get autographs and photos from cast members of Storage Wars. It appears the storage industry has become starstruck over this TV newcomer to our business. With the advent of this show, we've seen significant increases in bidders at storage auctions around the country. Additionally, many operators have reported an increase in bids for the units being sold. On the surface, this seems like manna from heaven, but I am not of that opinion!

Although I have limited experience (31 years in the self-storage business having managed more than 20 million square feet, operated and consulted in 25 states and five countries, trained more than 8,000 storage managers, owners and management companies and, yes, even auctioned more than 20,000 storage units), I feel qualified to express my great concerns as to the effect of this phenomenon on the industry. Although I have an appreciation for reality TV and the right to make money, sometimes the cost to others is significant, as in this case. I believe the term "reality TV" is used to attract a large audience, not necessarily to reflect reality.

As an industry, self-storage is a significant participant in the world economy. Weve spent the last 30-plus years gaining respect in the business and investment community. In the beginning, we were considered a backroom business that neighborhoods and municipalities had no desire to show off, but rather hide in industrial areas.

Weve come a long way. After all, we are a multi-billion-dollar industry. We now have multi-million-dollar stores in high-visibility locations and are continuing to be on the leading edge of technology.

Unfortunately, selling delinquent storage units is a not-so-desirable aspect of our business. But I dont believe Storage Wars shows the full side of the story. Whats not depicted is the great care owners/operators take to avoid such action. The show leads people to believe we cut locks on the day of the auction. In reality, most state statutes require the storage operator to inventory units and post newspaper advertisements prior to the sale. This is done to give the occupant every opportunity to reclaim his belongings.

Now that there are so many buyers attending self-storage auctions as a result of the show, our normal loyal buyerssecondhand dealers, swap-meet businesses and othersare not participating to the extent they once were. They see the competition for these units as unrealistic to produce a profit. Yes, some facilities' profit is better, but it will be short-lived as buyers discover the vast majority of units contain items the average person would not even want to sift throughunlike the treasures the buyers on the show seem to find.

In its commercials, Storage Wars shows potential buyers waving around great sums of money. I submit that this can only lead to repercussions that should be considered dangerous. We now have lawsuits cropping up from newbie buyers who feel theyve been defrauded if they dont find the valuables they were hoping for when bidding. Ive heard hundreds of comments from current and would-be customers about their concerns that all we do is sell personal belongings (not a good trend!), instead of the valuable service we provide to consumers.

Its obvious the producers of the show are making large amounts of money at our expense. In my humble opinion, this show has set back the reputation of our industry 20 years. Facility owners and operators should say no to Storage Wars. One of the best things this show could do for our industry is to go off the air.

Wouldnt it be great if the producers of this show had the confidence to debate a seasoned veteran of our industry in a public forum? Perhaps you'll all get a chance to witness this in the months ahead.

Joseph P. Niemczyk is the president of Executive Self Storage Associates Inc., which offers third-party management services to the self-storage industry. He is a frequent speaker at national and state tradeshows, and has trained more than 8,000 managers, owners and operators in self-storage operation, marketing, advertising and customer service. To reach him, call 303.703.1290; visit www.executiveselfstorage.com.