KKR has launched a self-storage platform to be run by former Jernigan Capital president and CIO Jonathan Perry.
Perry will serve as CEO of Alpha Storage Properties (ASP) and work with KKR’s real estate team to acquire and manage a portfolio of self-storage assets across the US.
KKR will seed the platform with 16 self-storage assets acquired in recent months for about $300m (€266m).
The portfolio spread across Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver the Inland Empire, Nashville, Orlando and Phoenix includes 11,700 units and encompasses 1.2 million square feet.
Perry has over two decades of experience in the self-storage industry, serving in senior leadership roles for a number of real estate investment trusts. He was most recently president and CIO at Jernigan Capital, and before that spent 10 years at CubeSmart.
“We are thrilled to launch ASP under Jonathan’s leadership,” said Roger Morales, partner and head of real estate acquisitions in the Americas at KKR. “His deep knowledge of the self-storage sector will help accelerate the growth of our portfolio.
“Self-storage is a resilient sector that has experienced steady growth over the past 30 years and we are seeing an increase in demand resulting from the evolving relationship people have with their living space, the cost of housing and accelerated trends in net migration.”
Perry said: “I am excited to collaborate with KKR to build a leading national portfolio of self-storage real estate.
“I was immediately impressed by the KKR real estate team’s rigorous approach to asset selection, deep presence in fast growing Sun Belt markets and strong focus on building lasting partnerships.
“We are launching ASP with a high-quality seed portfolio and I believe our platform is well positioned as an aggregator, owner and operator in a fragmented market.”
