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Former Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick has been quietly scaling up the real estate company he bought last year.
City Storage Systems has been hiring executives from Kalanick’s former company, and is planning to expand beyond the U.S., according to the Financial Times. London and the Middle East are the next locations being examined.
Kalanick bought a controlling stake in City Storage Systems for $150M in March, and at that time said it would have a focus on buying run-down real estate and turning it into modern tech-led property.
It has two main subsidiaries, CloudKitchen and CloudRetail. The former has been more active so far, buying assets for “dark kitchens”, kitchens set up solely to allow restaurants to fulfill orders from online food delivery apps like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. These kitchens are fundamentally changing the way the restaurant industry works.
As well as providing physical space, CloudKitchen provides companies with business management software. On its website it lists a number of LA restaurants as using its platform.
City Storage Solutions has been buying real estate in the U.S., with a focus on smaller assets. It has bought around $40M of assets in New York, using finance provided by Blackstone, according to The Real Deal.
In November the company bought a tired four-story office and retail property in San Jose for $7.3M, The Mercury News reports.
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