Riding Waves: how Avenue Living is navigating the dynamic self-storage space

This article was produced in partnership with Avenue Living.

As one of the top 20 self-storage operators in North America, Avenue Living’s Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust has made its mark in the space.

With a history that stretches back nearly half a century, Mini Mall, originally founded in 1977 as a self-storage pioneer, was acquired by Avenue Living in 2020. Their unique strategy has positioned the Trust as a legitimate long-term player, with the ability to keep growing and seizing opportunities where others can’t.

Since inception, the Trust has focused on consistent service, innovation, and facility upgrades to deliver superior customer experiences and build a strong foundation as a top operator. Their approach is bolstered by Avenue Living’s vertically integrated platform, which provides Mini Mall with a distinct competitive edge that allows them to stay ahead of market trends and navigate challenges effectively.

A timely start in self-storage

The Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust (MMSP) was established in February 2020, near the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the uncertainty made other investors wary, the Trust took calculated risks to grow its portfolio of assets, says CEO Adam Villard.

“We saw an opportunity,” says Villard, who also co-created the strategy. “We analyzed the market, thought through the logistics, and were able to drive forward in a pretty significant manner during that period.”

It wasn’t too long before trends like lower interest rates, the rise of remote work, and increased moving activity ignited the North American housing markets. Moving homes, including downsizing, accounts for an estimated 32 per cent of customer demand, giving the self-storage industry a considerable boost.

“We saw remarkable levels of exuberance in the storage market during 2020 and 2021,” says Gabriel Millard, managing partner for equity capital markets at Avenue Living.

Against that backdrop, private equity firms rushed to diversify into self-storage, along with other opportunists drawn in by its lucrative growth and returns. Meanwhile, the MMSP team stuck to its plan of strategic scaling, which included its expansion from Canada to the US in 2021 and growing to over 95 stores in their first two years of operation, while honing its expertise as an owner-operator of Class B and C facilities in secondary and tertiary markets.

Faced with the competitive self-storage landscape, Mini Mall continuously evolved, retooling its operating model and refining its revenue management program. Over time and through multiple iterations, Villard and the Mini Mall Storage team cemented its status as a formidable entrant by leaning on the significant experience of the broader Avenue Living organization.

Resilience in a changing market

Things started to change in the self-storage market in 2022, when a historic surge in inflation pushed the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada to drastically hike their benchmark interest rates. Due to higher prices, steeper costs of borrowing, and other economic factors, Millard says the energy in the housing sector—and by extension, the self-storage market—has moderated.

“When rates were low, a number of new players entered into the space who weren’t operators, and they looked at self-storage like a get-rich-quick strategy,” says Millard.

“They weren’t focused on operational excellence and creating brand standards that customers can depend on. Instead, they approached the business with a profits-first mentality that undermines their longevity. Mini Mall has been able to outperform the market by a pretty drastic margin and it is ready to capture the upside as these entities, or tourists, leave the market.”

In some ways, higher interest rates can provide opportunities. According to Millard, steeper costs of capital have created a slowdown in the supply of new self-storage units coming online. That means operators like Mini Mall, who build resilience and market power by buying assets in the secondary and tertiary markets, can find their strategy even more effective.

For Villard, the higher focus on costs has transformed the North American self-storage game, with participants who had been confident in their ability to snap up assets now being tested as operators. That’s led to a number of self-storage investors cutting their losses, which has been a key source of acquisitions for MMSP.

“Getting to scale is such an important part of our business,” says Villard. “But success doesn’t come from simply expanding—it comes from being operators first. Every lead matters, and you need an operational structure that not only captures those opportunities but also delivers consistent, high-quality outcomes.That means creating clean, safe, and innovative stores that foster trust, paired with a team that truly understands the business.”

In contrast to many competitors that take their operations for granted, Millard says Mini Mall has kept its nose to the grindstone, achieving an effective balance between keeping operations simple and elevating its assets with best-in-class upgrades.

“We’ve strived to maintain solid fundamentals, rather than straying too far away from the basics of what makes storage work. At the same time, we make it a point to add truly industry-leading sophistication to what we do,” he says. “There’s no doubt the market has shifted, but it all comes back to the importance of being a strong operator.”

While some of its largest peers in the public space have seen losses of 2 per cent over the past six months on a same-door basis, Millard says the Mini Mall team has kept the line moving up and to the right, with a 6.5 per cent gain on net operating income.

From its first deal to acquire 43,000 square feet of space in Alberta, MMSP’s portfolio has grown to cover almost 9 million square feet of self-storage space, with more than 220 self-storage facilities across seven provinces and fifteen states. Even amid challenges in the broader market, the fund has maintained a steady pace with returns consistently above 11 per cent since inception.

“The difference between success or failure every single month comes down to the small percentage of potential customers you’re able to convert into business,” Villard says. “To succeed, it takes more than just generating leads—you need teams that can effectively convert them through exceptional customer service, a solid reputation, and inviting facilities. Those elements are non-negotiable in driving long-term success.”

A catalyst for new opportunities

While there’s no denying the recent slowdown has led to a backlog in housing activity, Villard says a turning of the economic tide is creating a new sense of optimism, opening a door for housing activity to increase in 2025. According to one outlook report by Storable, a provider of integrated technology solutions for the self-storage industry, a non-trivial 13 per cent of Americans considering a move in the next six to 12 months cite lower interest rates as a key factor, with further Federal Reserve cuts potentially unlocking significant demand in both real estate and self-storage sectors.

Similarly, Millard says central banks’ plans to cut interest rates create the potential for lower mortgage rates, which would bring additional opportunities for capable owner-operators like Mini Mall to make acquisitions.

“When we’re looking at refinancing or issuing new debt, we’ve seen tremendous support from Tier One banks in Canada and the US,” Millard says.

At the moment, he says $700 million worth of self-storage deals are in various stages of due diligence in the Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust pipeline. In the very near term, it’s looking to build its portfolio up to 10 million square feet, with further plans to hit 15 million square feet of storage assets under management (AUM) in the short to medium term. If Mini Mall closes on these proposed acquisitions, that would place the Trust among the top 10 operators in the North American arena.

Meanwhile, Villard sees a potential supercharging trend benefiting manufacturing plants. That bodes well for MMSP, as manufacturing booms have historically generated strong migration and growth in the mid-Eastern US markets where it has found success.

He’s equally optimistic about growth prospects north of the border, “Canada continues to be a long-term play for us … we’re continuously looking at potential assets in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and the other markets we exist in,” Villard says. “We’re gearing our teams up and positioning ourselves so we’re ready to take advantage of future prospects.”

With its commitment to an operator-first ethos, Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust is in a strong standing to not only navigate this dynamic market but to lead it.

This commentary and the information contained herein are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in any jurisdiction, and do not and are not intended to constitute financial or legal advice. This article may contain forward-looking information. Readers should speak to their own financial advisors about any investment decisions and refer to Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust's Offering Memorandum and marketing materials for further information and risks available here.