A Golden, Colorado-based self-storage company closed out 2024 by bucking a trend that has plagued larger operators in the space since the pandemic disrupted housing trends that were profitable for the industry before 2020.

Spartan Investment Group ended 2024 with $175M in completed acquisitions and $100M in raised capital, with much of that coming from smaller, “mom-and-pop” investors, co-founder, President and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Gibson told Bisnow.

The firm launched in 2014 and made its first self-storage acquisition in 2018. Less than a decade later, Spartan has grown into a major player with over 150 employees and more than 30,000 units covering 4.6M SF in 14 states.

“There were some great opportunities that shook out of the market,” Gibson said. “Some of those assets got pushed to the market in a distressed way — perfectly good assets got at a good price.”

Some institutional investors and REITs are under pressure to rebalance their portfolios and are offloading self-storage facilities, creating opportunity for groups like Spartan.

Gibson is also hopeful about a likely thaw in the homebuying market relative to the last two years when elevated interest rates kept people from trying to buy.

“If people aren’t buying a home or moving or renting or renovating their homes,” they may not need self-storage space,” he said.

But with interest rates seeing a steady drop and more cuts possibly on the horizon, he predicts pent-up demand will soon flood the market as people make long-planned moves.

Even without that, though, Spartan is seeing a return on investment.

Rents at Extra Space Storage, which manages some of Spartan’s properties, saw a jump from $19.12 per SF in the third quarter of 2021 to $21.84 per SF in Q3 2024, according to a CBRE report. Their average occupancy rates, meanwhile, dropped from 96.9% to 94.4% in the same time.

“I’d rather take that $2 rent growth any day of the week,” Gibson said.

Spartan is vertically integrated with three main service areas: Spartan Investment Group leverages investor capital to develop properties, Spartan Construction Management develops new properties and Free Up Storage is the company’s property management arm.

The company takes a granular approach to its acquisitions and new builds. It uses databases and boots on the ground to work with cities.

“In aggregating all that data, I’d say there are 10 attributes we focus on,” Gibson said.

Those attributes include historical rents, occupancy, economic drivers and population data, among others.

Spartan is focusing on areas with high levels of migration. The Southeast, Pacific Northwest and Mountain West are three focus areas. Northwest Arkansas is another, as it houses the headquarters of Walmart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt, Gibson said.

Spartan is looking to continue its trajectory into 2025.

“We would love to take on 25 ground-up facilities and buy 25 existing self-storage sites,” Gibson said. “We’re gearing up to close on three, with four in the line-up and several more in entitlement,” Gibson said.