This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
US private equity giant Blackstone has locked away the Fort Knox Self Storage portfolio of 11 self-storage assets in Melbourne, in what it said is one of the largest transactions in the alternative asset class sector in Australia.
The acquisition was made through funds managed by Blackstone Real Estate Partners and follows its purchase of the KeepSafe portfolio in Perth earlier this year.
Its purchase of the Fort Knox portfolio comes quickly after Abacus Property Group went on a self-storage buying spree, snapping up 22 facilities for $370 million, while it recently bought the remaining 75% share in Storage King.
Chris Tynan, Blackstone’s head of real estate Australia said self-storage is a “rapidly growing trend in Australia, underpinned by its rising population particularly in urban areas like Melbourne and the country’s e-commerce boom.”
“We are pleased to begin our partnership with Fort Knox and grow our self-storage footprint in Australia. Backed by Blackstone’s scale and expertise, we aim to help Fort Knox expand and scale operations to accommodate customers’ increasing demand for high-quality storage space nationally.”
Blackstone said Fort Knox is “one of the leading self-storage solutions providers in Victoria with 11 state-of-the-art facilities spread across Melbourne’s residential areas, which have seen strong population growth over the years, and that sit within close proximity to major road infrastructure and demographic catchments”.
It said strong e-commerce growth is also propelling Australia’s self-storage sector, with Australia currently the 11th largest e-commerce market in the world, and revenue is predicted to jump to US$32 billion by 2024 from nearly US$26 billion in 2020, a year-on-year increase of about 16%.
“Demand has been further fuelled during the pandemic as people have sought well-managed self-storage spaces to support more flexible living and working arrangements.”
Blackstone earlier this year sold the Milestone logistics portfolio of 45 assets to ESR and GIC for $3.8 billion in what was Australia’s largest-ever real estate deal, and soon after divested its 90% stake in the Fife logistics portfolio to PGIM and Manulife in an $850 million transaction.
In Hong Kong, Blackstone owns a majority stake in two self-storage assets, and it completed its acquisition of Simply Self Storage in December last year 2020.
