Austin storage company buys into Palmetto for $13.3M

PALMETTO -- An Orlando-based self storage company has paid out a massive purchase price for one of the largest storage facilities in Manatee County.

Simply Self Storage, a privately owned company with storage buildings in 20 states and Puerto Rico, bought a 160,000-square-foot Extra Space Storage location at 2100 U.S. Highway 301 N. for $13.3 million. The Jan. 26 transaction represents a fair gain for the seller, Virtus Real Estate Capital of Austin, Texas. According to Manatee County property records, Virtus purchased the seven-year-old building in 2012 for $5.8 million.

The price paid in the transaction was one of the highest paid during the past two years.

The sale is the second in two weeks that moved a major Manatee County self-storage property from one owner to another. On Jan. 13 National self storage giant Public Storage bought a 67,000-square-foot facility on Cortez Road W. from local competitor Budget Self Storage $8.58 million purchase of a competitor's property. Public Storage now owns two storage properties on Cortez Road W.

Storage facilities have been changing hands at a regular clip in Manatee county over the past two years. Last June, a New York investment company purchased the 63,000-square-foot Value Self Storage facility at 3283 University Parkway for $5.8 million. A few months earlier, Extra Space Storage, a Utah-based real estate investment trust, bought a 49,000-square-foot storage facility on Cortez road for $5.1 million. Another self-storage facility, Kangaroo Self Storage at 5717 14th St W., sold in August 2014 for $2.48 million to a California company.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941--745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Austin storage company buys into Palmetto for $13.3M ."