Storage Stache

Thanksgiving seems like a great day to come out of the anonymous closet here on X. I can say that this platform and our awesome #CRE community has changed my life over the past few years. I have met dozens of you in person, made friends, partners, & golf buddies here among other things. I’ve taken groups of you into the backcountry to fish & hunt and made lifelong friends here. Back in Sept, I was sitting in the woods in Colorado elk hunting with @sweatystartup and he told me I was an idiot for being anonymous. I’m finally taking his advice, given the recent drama from a few disingenuous/bad actors here. My name is Blake (happy to share my last name with anyone privately who DM’s). I’m 42, married, father to a 1 yr old girl & 5 yr old boy. I grew up in IN, graduated from Purdue and spent 15 years in the Vail Valley, Colorado. We moved to Ohio 3 yrs ago during COVID to be closer to family. My heart is still in the mountains and we’ll be back out West in the next few years. I traded a “professional” career to chase my passion and worked as a fly fishing guide for well over a decade. It was incredible and I would do it all over again the same way if I could. I definitely didn’t get rich doing this but rowing a boat down a river every day was fulfilling beyond words. Worked in the construction for a handful of years after that. ~4 yrs ago I watched a video of Nick breaking down a self-storage deal & I instantly knew this/CRE would be my path forward. I thought, “if this knucklehead can do it, so can I”. Fast forward to now and I’m currently doing 2 ground up development projects on niche storage products with a few small-bay industrial properties in the works. We are just getting started and our ramp is steepening as we speak. I also still have my W-2 as a Sales Manager (hence the semi-anonymity) and plan to phase out in 2024 to full time RE. I can directly attribute many of these opportunities to my participation in this amazing community of professionals here on Twitter. I’m thankful for you all and can’t wait to see the things that our small team will accomplish in the coming years. DM’s are open for anyone! Added a few pictures of me, my family, sweaty, and one of my partners + some random guy @rdassaly (who I met on twitter) who I gave a Tool ticket to the other night. 😃🤘 Cheers & Happy Holidays to all of you beautiful people out there! 🍻🍻

It blows my mind that @AlexForbesOps got flagged on this for “rage bait” by the readers (angry nerds). 😂 He’s absolutely right. Grown ass men need to stop playing video games at some point. Waste of time and waste of life. Loser behavior.

This is the best use case I’ve seen so far for the new Tesla Roadster.

Welp - We’re building an RV Park… Ask me anything

Ohio gets a lot of shit for being…Ohio. But our business has focused much of our efforts here for many reasons, like the following tailwinds: Ohio is ranked #1 State in the country for: -Infrastructure (CNBC) -Cost of doing business (CNBC) -Aerospace manufacturing attractiveness (PwC) -Supplier state to Boeing & Airbus -Engine Manufacturing -Location for military aviation R&D Ohio is ranked in the top 10 for: -Cost of living (CNBC) -Economy (CNBC) -Access to capital (CNBC) Ohio is positioning itself to lead for the next few decades. Our pipeline of opportunities is bursting at the seams. Come on in, the water is warm!

Sweet sweet ground breaking! This one has been a long time coming. Future site of 103,000 sf of flex space and commercial condos: half for sale, half for lease on 13 of 50 acres of Industrial dirt. Timeline: 12-18 months. Road will go in next year to open up back acreage. 🤘

So we did a “home run deal” in April when we closed on an 80k sf warehouse near Ann Arbor. We’re all into it for ~$1.5mm and with the new lease in place, we’re at a conservative valuation of ~$4mm at an 8 CAP. We’re looking to refi at <50% LTV. Lots of equity here. Anyone in my network have interest (without insane application fees and gotcha pre-payment penalties if we sell in 2027)?

Nice fresh pour of concrete this morning at one of our projects. 👌

Outside of ground up development our small team does, this is one of the best deals we’ve done. Massive props to @MarketReferee for being the cold-calling assassin that he is finding our tenant + managing the massive CapEx projects. 💪 👏👏👏

I’m more inclined to do (literally any) business with those who golf vs. those who don’t.

Anyone know an electrician in the Charleston, SC market who’d be interested in helping us with a flex space project? 40k sf. Fully entitled and permitted. Slide into the DM’s if so!

Going deep into the elk woods for a week. 💪

Putting in a new 1300’ water line to serve the back half of our development in Sandusky. We’re wrapping up construction on 20 units now and will build 48 more in phases over the next few years. Pipeline of projects continues to grow! Reach out if you want to learn more about what we’re up to on the development side of our business!

I guess this is another lesson as to why you always do proper due diligence…with an inspection contingency prior to closing. 😅

“Adventures in Construction - Chapter 4” Overhead door installers are at it again. They missed the 2x6 nailer board jamb (on all 12 doors in this building) and this is the result. These guys will not see my job site again as I don’t trust them to fix it properly.

One of the most overlooked & valuable places to find: -future tenants -contractors -township/county trustees & board members -SMB owners -owners of land/real estate -locals who know before everyone else does Is your local VFW. Plus they have cheap beer. You’re welcome.

What happens when your contractor insists on pouring concrete when rain is forecasted? You get to cut it all out and re-pour it. And you get to be the asshole that says “I told ya so”. Then fight about who’s paying for it… 😬

Overhead Door installers magically (unexpectedly) showed up while I was not on-site last Friday. I expected them the Monday after. I got on-site and this is what I found… 😂😂 I called the company and recommended that their crew be drug tested immediately.

This has been a long time coming! We bought this 50 acres of Industrial just over 2 years ago. Old farm house had to come down but we’ve officially started. 103,520 sf of flex and storage/commercial condos will live here. Some for sale, some for lease. Let’s gooo!!

Mid Year Update: -We are growing and evolving. Noticing a need to rebrand away from the dirty word “storage”. -Closed on an 80k sf vacant warehouse in Michigan in April. Signed tenant before closing. Capex wrapping up. Tenant moves in Aug 1. Huge win, over 3x value add. @MarketReferee has been an amazing addition to the team and has added tremendous value to our operation. -Sandusky development: 20 more units being added. Construction almost complete. This has not been a smooth build but we’re a few weeks away from completion. New sewer and water line taps will delay C/O. Lessons have been learned. -Columbia Station, OH: 50 acre industrial site breaking ground next week. 2+ years in the making. 103k sf of storage condos and flex will take all of 12-18 months to complete. -Summerville, SC Flex Project - Land disturbance permit secured. Took 10 months - Dorchester county was very challenging. Civil engineer is worth his weight in gold here. Half of units pre-sold above pro-forma. Breaking ground in August. 3 (maybe 4) new developments in the queue across MI and Ohio. Photos of lift station install half-done at Sandusky project.