STEER TO SUCCESS Although Wojtaszek, who had a
long history building and running one of the largest data center companies in the world, partnered with a private equity firm in New York, the inspira- tion for RecNation came from a per- sonal experience. “The pandemic killed our planned
trip to Italy, so we ended up buying a camper,” he says. “We have a place in Florida, but we used the camper to escape the kids and their friends because we knew were going to get COVID if we kept hanging out with them. We started going camping around the country, and as we were driving back to our house in Dallas, I realized I couldn’t park it in our neigh- borhood and started stressing. I built this business around that need.” Much as he expanded his collection
of data centers, the Columbia Business School MBA started looking ahead at scalability. “My objective is to get to several
hundred of these properties around the country to recreate what Public Storage originally did for the self-storage industry,” says Wojtaszek. “My goal is to build RecNation into the brand for the boat and RV space. We spent the last two years building a really robust operating platform so that we can easily scale the business in anticipation of the growth that we fore- see coming.” “The key to success is don’t look
for a key to success,” says Whitney Jurjevich, a former Tempe police offi- cer who now owns and operates Ameripark Covered Storage with facili- ties across Arizona. “However, you may find a piece of land with favorable zoning and entitlements, which are a big factor. If the market is right, you have found a good location—not just something that is on a freeway or between two MSAs but somewhere in proximity to a population that has a healthy disposable income—with those positive indicators then I wouldn’t say going slow is a way to do it. All you’re going to do is drag out the increase to your base, because time is inflation
18 Self-Storage NOW!
and inflation just means it’s going to be more expensive to build.” Jurjevich continues, “This is a cash
generating business with little to no jobs or tax revenue created, which is unpopular. Towns and communities are starting to be very restrictive, with development commissions requiring higher and higher costs for the design standards and development. We just haven’t seen that rents have kept pace with costs to build. Cost of builds go up, but wages aren’t rising as fast as rents would need to keep up.”
Pros Of Partnerships Bringing in outside outlets to either increase your amenities to keep cus- tomers happy or for alternate sources of revenue makes sense for the bottom line. “We just announced a new partner-
ship with Camping World, the largest owner of RV retail locations around the country,” says Wojtaszek. “They are also the largest provider of RV repair or maintenance services. We will offer those types of services to our customers at our locations as we kind of scale that. It’s tough because things are always breaking, but trying to get someone to come out and repair it is incredibly challenging. This is a natural market that is just starved for resources. They are a huge com- pany, so we don’t have to build out a whole separate repair business our- selves to keep customers satisfied. We also partner with them so that all of their new customers get storage space with us.” This kind of strategic partnership
can help shore up a bottom line to keep a company healthy during times of financial uncertainty. “If you think that you’re going to have a cookie cutter model that’s going to work everywhere—if we just do these things, we’ll be good—you’re likely to step on a rake somewhere or multiple places,” says Jurjevich. “Every facility is its own animal. Big REITs want a cookie stamp. ‘This is our model. We’ll just be like a Starbucks, and
we’ll slam it down in here, and all these numbers add up, and our market study says this.’ It really takes a personal touch and a realistic look at that specific environment.” Looking outside the box for clients
and customers specific to your loca- tion is key to maintaining a high occu- pancy. Besides owners of recreational vehicles, some RV and boat storage facilities rent units to landscapers, contractors, food trucks, crane com- panies, truck drivers who need a place to store their rigs when they aren’t on the road, and many others. Alternative customers and partners keep your business healthy, so get creative with your marketing to attract a variety of tenants.
Marketing Matters Another integral element to building a strong and lasting RV and boat
SECOND QUARTER 2024
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