2016 Year in Review: Nick Malagisi, Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty

Nick Malagisi, Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty

Name: Nick Malagisi

Company: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty

What was your most notable project, deal, transaction or professional achievement in 2016?

My most notable transaction for 2016 was the exclusive representation & disposition of a 4 property self storage portfolio $42,000,000. These were stabilized assets located in desirable markets within the Metro NY area and Hartford. The Seller had accumulated, redeveloped & re-positioned the portfolio with good management over a period of 5 years. The portfolio was sold to one of the top four REIT’s within the self storage industry after competitive bidding to reach top dollar for the Seller.

What project, transaction, market trend or product had the greatest impact on your industry this year?

The transaction that had the most impact in our industry this past year was the purchase of the Life Self Storage portfolio, a 70 property portfolio of self storage assets located in the top markets in the US, by the Sovran Self Storage(REIT) for $1.3Billion. Sovran liked the transaction so much that they purchased the trade name rights to the company, also, and changed their trade name from “Uncle Bob’s” to Life Self Storage.

How will you be supercharging your productivity in 2017?

Many of us in the industry are wondering when the current period of low interest rates/low Cap Rates will begin to slow down the tremendous transaction flow that we have experienced since the end of the last recession. But with the Donald Trump era about to begin, I personally am not so sure that there will be the economic slowdown forecasted by others if the Democrats had won the White House. In any event, my own personal productivity for 2017 is looking strong given that I have four properties under contract in different phases of due diligence and a continuation of my consulting business for new parties looking to enter the self storage business.

What emerging trends will drive investment and development in 2017

Emerging trends within our self storage industry continue to be the advances in technology for operations and “Adaptive Reuse” of:

• Properties that no longer have the original use for the product or services that they were built for;

• Properties that are “functionally obsolete” by the way they were originally designed; and

• Properties that are being designed & developed for mixed use with the self storage component as the primary use, but the alternative uses combined to gain approvals from the municipalities for those unique, in-fill locations that are so desirable to the self storage developers.