The board of trustees of U-Store-It Trust Inc., a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust focused on self-storage facilities, declared a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per common share for the period ending Sept. 30. The dividend is payable on Oct. 21 to common shareholders of record on Oct. 7.

Based in Wayne, Pa., U-Store-It owns or manages 455 facilities across the United States, and operates the U-Store-It Network, which consists of approximately 810 additional self-storage facilities.

Sovran Self Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT) that operates facilities under the brand Uncle Bobs Self Storage, reported operating results for the quarter ending June 30. Highlights include:

• Net income available to common shareholders for the second quarter was $9.7 million or $.35 per diluted share.
• Funds from operations (FFO) for the quarter were $.67 per fully diluted common share compared to $.61 for the same period last year.
• Total revenue increased 7.2 percent over last years second quarter, while operating costs increased 1.4 percent, resulting in a net operating income increase of 10.6 percent.
• Higher rental rents and the reduced use of move-in incentives contributed to the increase in earnings and FFO.
• The company acquired one store at the end of June and three more subsequent to the end of the quarter for total consideration of $21.2 million.
• Overall occupancy averaged 80 percent for the period, and rental rates improved to an average of $10.56 per square foot.

As the busy season is well under way, were encouraged by the strong showing in all of our markets and the healthy rebound of our pricing power, said Ken Myszka, president and COO. Occupancy is holding steady while we substantially reduce the use of move-in concessions.

To read the full financial report, visit www.unclebobs.com/company/investment.

Sovran Self Storage Inc. is a self-administered and self-managed equity REIT that acquires and manages self-storage facilities. The company operates 371 facilities in 24 states.

By Cory Parrow

Do you regularly evaluate your self-storage staff to ensure you have top-quality people managing your product and customers? Or do you hear yourself making these comments:

• My manager has increased our occupancy and maintained a low delinquency, so I know hes doing a good job.
• Our facility is always clean and all the customers I talk to are very happy with my manager. She must be doing the right things.
• Occupancy is dropping and the facility is very dirty. What am I paying him for?

Are these measurable tools for determining the value of your managers? Do you use this type of intuition to reward or reprimand staff, or do you take the time to evaluate employees based on specific criteria?

Its so much easier to base your rating on facility reports and conversations with customers, but the position of facility manager has far more depth than simply renting units, collecting money, maintaining the site, and making friends with tenants. The success of a good, progressive manager wont always show up on a report. A formal evaluation process keeps everyone on point.

Building the Tool

The idea is to design an evaluation that covers the specific areas in which you want your company to excel. For example, if you want staff to demonstrate industry knowledge, rate their performance on how often they read self-storage articles, if they offer storage tips to customers, and how well they understand their competition. A manager whos confident about his products and services and can offer advice will make prospective customers comfortable with their choice. Likewise, if your manager can educate customers on how your operation is better than competitors, it will reinforce yours as the facility to trust.

Plan evaluations around the qualities you want to groom in employees. This will produce the results you desire. Devise an assessment that covers general qualities any good employee should possess such as promptness, teamwork, attitude, hygiene and enthusiasm. The evaluation should also include an understandable grading scale, such as a numeric scale from one to 10. Separate it into categories that will allow you and your employee to determine strengths and weaknesses.

Who Does the Evaluation?

As the boss, youre expected to complete the assessment, but asking your staff to first write a self-evaluation opens communication. Ask each employee to provide you a copy of his evaluation at least a day before you plan to meet. This allows you to review his ratings and compare them to your own.

You may find the employee is expending effort into the job of which you are not aware. Maybe hes reading industry magazines, participating in an industry forum, or attending webinars or seminars. This type of initiative might never be noticed if you dont create an open conversation.

When to Perform an Evaluation

The biggest mistake employers often make is failing to adhere to their evaluation schedule. An owner will tell a new employee he conducts evaluations every six months, but then find himself focused on other tasks and missing the window. Not only does this illustrate a lack of follow-through, the employer loses the chance to discuss the employees performance.

If the manager is doing a great job, hearing so will improve morale and produce even better results. If the boss is too busy to follow up with evaluations, the employee may start to feel like hes not valued and his great performance could start to diminish. He may even look for another job. Make the evaluation a high priority. Schedule it in writing and complete the task. It has the power to improve great employees or uncover those who need additional training.

Whats Next?

Follow-through has tremendous impact on the evaluations effectiveness. If you simply complete the process and carry on with regular operation, it will not have any value. The evaluation must have purpose. It can be used to determine forward-thinking strategies in improving your operation and manager performance.

Maybe your staff has some great ideas havent heard, and your discussion during the evaluation develops into profitable brainstorming dialogue. Perhaps manager weaknesses become evident during the process. Create action items to tackle these areas, and then follow up in 60 days to evaluate the employees progress.

Most important, employee evaluations should be used to improve your company. If your staff is providing great service, reward them. If they need improvement in specific areas, its up to you to define whats needed and how they can be better. Employee evaluations offer self-storage owners and managers a chance to open communication and uncover ways to make the business a bigger success.

Cory Parrow is a consultant with Your Storage Team, a management company based in Southern Ontario, Canada. Your Storage Team specializes in management services and has been involved in the development of self-storage facilities for more than a decade. For more information, call 519.868.1982; e-mail cory@yourstorageteam.com.

Extra Space Storage has joined as a partner of the Environmental Protection Agencys Energy Star program. As such, the company will work to improve energy efficiency and fight climate change through a strategic, corporate energy-management program. In the partnership, Extra Space will:

• Measure and track the energy performance of the organization's facilities where possible by using tools such as those offered through Energy Star
• Develop and implement a plan consistent with Energy Star Energy Management Guidelines to achieve energy savings
• Help spread the word about the importance of energy efficiency to company staff and the community
• Support the Energy Star Challenge, a national call-to-action to help improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more
• Highlight the companys achievements with recognition offered through Energy Star

Energy Star was introduced in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions through energy efficiency. Today the Energy Star label is found on more than 60 kinds of products as well as new homes and commercial and industrial buildings that meet strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the EPA.

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 550,000 units and more than 60 million square feet of rentable storage space.

Real estate investment trust Sovran Self Storage Inc. has formed a second joint venture with an affiliate of Heitman LLC to purchase 19 self-storage facilities throughout New Jersey (19) and Pennsylvania (2). The properties comprise 1.4 million square feet of net rentable storage space.

Heitman contributed 85 percent of equity to the newly formed venture, dubbed Sovran HHF Storage Holdings II LLC. Sovran contributed the remaining 15 percent. Mortgage financing was provided primarily by PNC Bank N.A.

Sovran will manage and rebrand all venture locations under its trade name, Uncle Bobs Self Storage.

We are excited to launch our second joint venture with such an attractive group of properties. These acquisitions are class-A stores that expand our footprint into New Jersey, said Sovran Chief Financial Officer David Rogers.

Sovran now manages 47 properties through joint-venture and third-party management agreements. It operates a total of more than 400 properties in 25 states.

Heitman is a real estate investment management firm with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Australia, Asia and Europe.

Outback Management LLC, a Hattiesburg, Miss.-based company, opened a new self-storage facility in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Spacebox Self Storage offers a range of climate-controlled self-storage solutions including individual units for personal and business storage. The facility also offers retail products including boxes and packing supplies, business services such as faxing and Internet access, and vehicle and boat storage.

Outback Management oversees the day-to-day operations of 12 facilities in Mississippi and Florida, totaling more than 9,600 units and 1,195,000 square feet of storage. The facilities operate under the brands Spacebox Self Storage and Outback Self Storage.

The five Spacebox Self Storage locations in Florida are in Fort Walton Beach, Pensacola, Palmetto, Land O'Lakes and North Fort Myers. Outback Self Storage currently operates seven locations: two in Florida, including Fort Walton Beach and Navarre, and five locations in Mississippi, including three in Hattiesburg and one each in Horn Lake and Olive Branch.

Janus International, a manufacturer of self-storage doors and hallway systems, hired Rob Finelli as district sales manager for the southwest region.

Finelli was most recently employed by U.S. Door and Building Components as vice president of sales, western operations, where he was responsible for regional sales of self-storage and commercial-door products. Prior to his employment at U.S. Door, he founded Finelli Metal Structures, a self-storage metal-building company.

Robs vast amount of knowledge in the door- and building-components industry will be a tremendous asset to the Janus sales team, said Ramey Jackson, vice president of sales.

Finelli will operate from his Gilbert, Ariz., home office where hell spearhead regional commercial-sheet door and rolling-steel sales.

Headquartered in Temple, Ga., Janus is a manufacturer of commercial and industrial doors and building components for self-storage and an array of other industries. The company also has joint ventures in the United Kingdom and Mexico. 

Denver-based Executive Self Storage Associates (ESSA), a provider of management and consulting services to independent self-storage facility owners, has appointed Thomas A. Foreman as director of sales and business development. Working from the Denver office, he is responsible for managing and increasing the ESSA network of clients. In particular, he will spearhead the companys effort to expand into all of the western states.

Foreman previously led the business-development efforts of Liberty Greenfield (LGF), where he expanded the organization's network of complementary business partners and increased revenue by 15 percent. Prior to LGF, he worked as a channel partner manager for IBM, where he was responsible for a 20 percent increase in revenue through business partners and a 30 percent increase in the number of business partners within his region.

Foreman has a bachelors degree in marketing from the University of Northern Colorado.

"The expertise and drive Tom brings to our company will assist the core team and further strengthen our ability to meet the needs of our customers," said ESSA President Joe Niemczyk.

LifeStorage Centers LLC, a self-storage operator with 18 facilities throughout Chicagoland, will now provide records-storage management services at all of its locations. Offerings will include vault storage rooms compliant  with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), document and data destruction, barcode tracking for boxes and files, rush pickup and delivery services, file-indexing services, and an advanced Web-search tool for accessing stored files.

Customers can choose between full- and self-service options. Full service includes confidential file storage, rush pickup and delivery to an archive center, barcode tracking, document-scanning services, and use of a secure file-viewing area. The self-serve option is HIPAA-compliant and allows for easy document retrieval as needed, with individual vault sizes and flexible leasing arrangements.

The self-service vault solution supplies an industry niche that allows customers a new alternative for document storage with the ability to access and store documents without the middleman, said Matt Clark, vice president of operations.

Each LifeStorage facility provides file boxes and specialized shelving as well as climate control and video surveillance. Once a box is filed and stored, a client can manage his files remotely using the LifeStorage Records Web Locator Tool, which allows him to search through his own files online. The service allows customers to electronically store, track and access their documents. Files can even be scanned or faxed whenever they are needed.

LifeStorage is also offering a record-disposal program, with shredding and destruction services based on personalized corporate-retention schedules.

Life Storage was founded in 2002 by owners Jean Jodoin and Christopher Barry. Information about the companys new records services can be found at LSRecords.com.