The Beginning
Dave’s first experience in self-storage occurred in 1989 at the age of 15.
Dave Sr. was managing a facility at 3032 Airport Hwy., as a receivership, and as a bi-product of the Savings and Loans fall out of the late 80s.
Dave and his friends cleaned out abandoned units. Little did he know that storage would become the fabric of his life.
Mr. Storage
In 1997, Dave Sr. opened his first Mr. Storage location at 2800 Glendale.
In 2005, Dave Jr. became the property manager, falling in love with storage as an asset class. Several years later Dave Sr. converted the former Allied lumber yard, on South Detroit to storage, partnering with his brother Lucky.
Two years later, Dave Sr. and Dave Jr. opened the Mr. Storage facility on Reynolds Road.
High Utilization
In 2020, the utilization of storage skyrocketed during Covid, as every facility in the country seemed to be completely occupied.
At this point, Dave Jr. started evaluating every trade area in Northwest Ohio for development, purchasing land in Perrysburg, Sylvania and Toledo for development.
Office-Less Management
Late in 2020, Dave Jr. started development of his “Express/Online” concept, known as “Mr. Storage Online”. Historically, self-storage facilities have required a minimum of 45,000 sq ft to justify a full-time office person. As Covid changed the storage landscape, Dave adjusted his business model, adapting to be able to rent storage facilities online. This then went further creating a new model with locations with 16-34k sq ft that do not have an office, utilizing advanced Noke technology, where units can be rented and managed from the palm of your hand.
Syndication
Early in 2022, Dave Jr. began his first syndication deal on Airport Hwy in Toledo offering Regulation D securities to finance development.
Also this year, Dave began developing two “storage condo” deals, in Sylvania and Perrysburg. He has evaluated the emerging market of RV and Boat storage, but nothing is under development yet.