Executives from The Hampshire Cos., Extra Space Storage and Circle Squared Alternative Investments joined Millburn Mayor Cheryl Burstein to celebrate the ribbon-cutting for a new self-storage facility in Millburn. — Photo by Hal Brown/Courtesy: Hampshire
By Joshua Burd
The Hampshire Cos. has debuted the latest piece of its ever-growing self-storage pipeline — unveiling a 104,260-square-foot facility in Millburn alongside Circle Squared Alternative Investments and other members of the project team.
The development group on Monday took the wraps off the three-story, 767-unit Extra Space Storage project, which is located at 30 Bleeker St. The property marks Hampshire’s 30th self-storage facility in the last six years, the firm announced, while it has another dozen projects underway across the eastern U.S. with a combined value of $217 million.
“Continued strong demand for self-storage facilities in some of the most densely populated areas along the eastern United States has created an ample opportunity for developers with experience in constructing projects in markets with high barriers to entry,” said James E. Hanson II, CEO and president of The Hampshire Cos. “Our self-storage investment strategy is built on recognizing opportunities within these markets and applying our decades of experience to successfully deliver modern, well-located facilities that today’s customers demand.”
Hampshire and Circle Squared, which are both based in Morristown, marked the new facility’s opening alongside Millburn Mayor Cheryl Burstein, other township officials and representatives of Extra Space Storage. They touted the property’s location off Interstate 78 and its easy access to Interstate 287 and the Garden State Parkway, along with amenities such as climate-controlled storage and a state-of-the-art security system.
The ceremony also drew members of the project team from SNS Architects, Avison Young, Sweetwater Construction and Bohler Engineering.
“There were numerous engineering and construction challenges presented by this site which resulted in being left vacant for quite some time,” said Don Engels, senior vice president of self-storage acquisitions and development for Hampshire. “Despite these challenges the strong local demographics and location of the property presented an ideal opportunity for self-storage development.
“We leveraged our extensive experience in ground-up self-storage development and the expertise of our valued project partners, to create an impressive building to meet the storage needs of the local community.”
Hampshire, which has been in business since 1922, entered the self-storage market about 20 years ago with a project in Edgewater and has since opened dozens of facilities in several states. In addition to its 12 ongoing projects, the firm said it was targeting another 14 with an aggregate value of $243 million in its pipeline.
