Section 2 • Industry Ownership As new investors with deep pockets look to enter the
self-storage industry and consolidation continues to shift the ownership percentages, next year’s profile will undoubt- edly be a different picture. Although institutionalization of the industry is not going to happen in the short term,
unpredictable events like COVID-19 have reminded opera- tors of the financial hardships that can arise unexpectedly. And the economies of scale enjoyed by REITs, large opera- tors, and those utilizing third-party management platforms certainly make troubling times more endurable.