The Californer - Harvest Properties Acquires Two San Francisco Bay Area Self Storage Facilities for .2 Million

Trending...

SAN FRANCISCO - Californer -- Harvest Properties ("Harvest") in joint venture with New York Life Real Estate Investors ("NYLREI"), has expanded its self-storage footprint in the San Francisco Bay area by 1,435 units with the acquisition of facilities in Vallejo and Sonoma in two separate transactions totaling at $44.2 million.

Acquired in an off-market transaction, Best Self Storage Sonoma is an 80,000-square-foot drive-up facility offering 516 units with an average unit size of 155 square feet. It is located at the intersection of 155 Fremont Drive and Mafei Road, one of the highest trafficked intersections in Sonoma with approximately 22,000 vehicles passing by the facility each day.

Vallejo Self Storage is a newly constructed 76,000-square-foot property that features 919-units, all of which are 100% climate-controlled, one of two climate-controlled assets in the Vallejo submarket. In a market characterized by older obsolete product, it is the first self-storage facility to be built in Vallejo in two decades. Located at 384 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo Self Storage benefits from 500 feet of frontage along I-80 providing exceptional visibility, high-identity, and convenient access from the nearby Redwood Street on/off ramp.

More on The Californer

The JLL Storage Capital Markets team represented the seller in the sale of Vallejo Self Storage.

The Harvest-led joint venture has engaged Extra Space, the largest third-party self-storage management company in the country, to manage both properties.

"Demand fundamentals continue to improve as high housing costs, urban housing's limited garage/storage space, and a growing renter population have all led to growth in the sector," said Harvest Partner Preston O'Connell. "Investment in self-storage assets have low future capital requirements and offer an operationally lean model with high margins and relatively low maintenance costs compared to other asset classes."

Harvest has a long-standing mission of actively pursuing acquisition opportunities across the Bay Area, with a focus on high-quality assets in supply-constrained markets. That philosophy helped drive the firm's decision to enter the self-storage space.

"Located in supply constrained markets, the Vallejo and Sonoma self-storage facilities wed our long-term investment strategy with our underlying conviction in the region," added Harvest Properties Director of Investments Alex Kaplan. "We believe in the resilience of the sector and the intrinsic value of quality assets in forever locations. We look forward to expanding our self-storage portfolio within the Bay Area."

More on The Californer

"We started our expansion into the self-storage sector in 2024 with the acquisition of three assets in the eastern United States and we're excited to continue that growth on the west coast with these two acquisitions," said Albert Pura, Senior Director of Equity Transactions for NYLREI. "Harvest and NYLREI have a long history of working together and this was an attractive opportunity to expand that relationship."

Harvest (http://www.harvestproperties.com) entered the self-storage sector in 2024, with its development of a 473-unit facility in Napa in 2024, which is now fully leased.

"In Napa, we successfully worked with the city to position our facility as a critical service hub for the area's growing housing and small business needs," O'Connell said. "It was a straightforward concession given the existing use, and we plan to replicate this strategy where appropriate across other infill, land-constrained sites."