Global real estate investment and asset management firm Forum Partners and one of its portfolio companies, Pocket Storage, recently completed a $12 million round of fundraising for the development of a self-storage platform that will deliver secure and fully automated self-storage facilities in ultra-urban markets in the United Kingdom.
The fund is now fully subscribed and considered closed.
“Due to high real estate costs, space limitations, zoning challenges and elevated operating costs, traditional self-storage operators have minimal exposure to densely populated urban areas,” said Russell Platt, chief executive officer of Forum Partners. “Our new platform’s focus on leasing underutilized space coupled with a proprietary and fully automated booking and access system solves the traditional challenges of operating in urban areas.”
Pocket Storage intends to open 38,000 square feet across three centrally located London facilities throughout 2025, with the first location expected to open in the second quarter. The company believes London is an ideal first market since it has 13.5% of the country’s population and is accountable for 25% of its GDP but only provides 0.4 square feet of self-storage per capita – less than half of the U.K. national average.
The company combines proprietary booking and site access software with a real estate strategy focused on repurposing underutilized urban spaces to deliver fully automated and centrally located storage facilities in under-serviced markets. Pocket said this differentiated approach enables it to address the challenges traditionally associated with operating self-storage properties in dense, urban environments: limited space and staffing costs.
“This is an eloquent solution that provides convenience for the consumer and economic benefit for owners of vacant retail space and underutilized parking garages. We don’t need a large footprint or extensive capital investment and can bring a variety of unit sizes to market quickly,” added Platt.
After reaching scale in the U.K., Pocket Storage intends to expand across targeted urban markets worldwide through Forum’s global real estate platform and beyond, in such key markets as New York City, Paris, Tokyo and other space-constrained city centers.
Just last month, Forum Partners completed fundraising for another fund – also with $12 million in total commitments. Newlands Development Opportunities I, LLC will use its capital raise to acquire an entitled industrial development site known as Newlands Park Nottingham Gateway, located within the United Kingdom’s premier Golden Triangle logistics corridor.
Since 2002, Forum Partners has deployed approximately $7.7 billion of capital across 24 countries and over 100 investments. Its operating companies and affiliates directly or indirectly own or manage over $14 billion of commercial real estate in the United States and worldwide.
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