Unpacking Columbia’s Self-Storage Boom

Apparently, we just really love our ‘stuff.’ Photos by Keith Borgmeyer.

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the vast number of people with too many possessions and not enough storage.   

With apologies to Capt. James T. Kirk, finding more earthly space seems to have become the mission of many Columbians. And these intrepid residents are finding an increasing number of places where self-storage spaces await them. In fact, there are at least forty self-storage facilities with Columbia addresses.   

Are there enough? And what’s with all the stuff people have that they need them for? Let’s find out.  

Columbia’s Self-Storage Industry Leadership  

Columbia holds several claims to fame, like hosting the first homecoming. But it’s also a self-storage world leader.   

StorageMart launched in Columbia in 1999, although the Gordon Burnam family had owned self-storage facilities since the 1970s. Today, it’s the largest privately owned self-storage company in the world with more than 300 facilities in 23 states, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It has 2,794 units across eight facilities in Columbia alone.  

The unit sizes range from smaller 5×5 spaces (around twenty-five square feet) to much larger spaces like a 30×50 (1,500 square feet).   

In interviews with Samuel Schnieders, owner of BOXIT Self-Storage Centers, and Jack Maher III, vice president of Maher Commercial Real Estate, which manages Bold Venture Storage & Business Park and Route K Storage, both invoked the Burnam name as a leader in the industry. You might be surprised to learn that industry is classified under real estate. And it’s booming in Columbia.  

Keeping It Real (Estate)  

Real estate is an investment, whether that’s owning a home, a commercial building, an apartment complex, or a storage facility. But investors didn’t always put storage into the same category. That is, until the 2008 financial crisis.  

“When the economic downturn happened, self-storage came through with flying colors, and that caught Wall Street’s interest,” Schnieders says. “The downturn really showed how recession-proof self-storage is. Now, Wall Street starts funneling money into [the industry] from 2012 all the way through 2020. Then, COVID happens, and storage had its best years ever. We were thriving while investments in office buildings were getting killed.”  

Even all the small mom-and-pop storage facilities avoided taking the hit other commercial real estate did. And that has attracted more and more people to invest in them, either by buying existing facilities or building new ones.  

Schnieders built his original BOXIT facility intending to sell it for capital to construct a new one. It worked. He opened a new BOXIT facility behind Columbia Mall in May and is working to fill the first phase of units.   

Maher, newer to the industry, read an article five or six years ago that said Columbia’s self-storage units were at 100 percent occupancy, which is why so many new ones have been going up.   

“That’s one of the reasons why you see this huge boom in the self-storage industry here in town,” Maher says. “Everybody follows market swings. And the market was saying for a long time, ‘Hey, we’re undersupplied for self-storage facilities.’”  

Industry Changes  

In a recent article published by Modern Storage Media, StorageMart CEO Cris Burnam says the attention self-storage is getting from investors is also attracting consolidation, which will dramatically change the industry. As he says in the article:  

“The industry is going to become more institutionalized, just like the hotel industry. As more money comes into our sector, the more competitive it will get, and mom and pop won’t be able to keep up with the times. They won’t be able to invest in the systems they need and the technology people will demand.”  

Systems and technology have experienced a sea change. Many facilities used to have managers on site. They could let people in and out, process applications, and accept rent payments in person.  

Today, most use digital platforms to tackle tasks remotely. Some use management companies, like BOXIT’s relationship with Argus Professional Storage Management in Arizona. Even though Maher Commercial Real Estate is local, it manages two facilities it doesn’t own, also handling marketing, leads, contracts, rental payments, customer questions, and security systems.   

“The technology finally caught up with the asset. You still have to have a person on the ground, but all the pieces came together where you don’t have to have a person there 24/7,” Schnieders says.   

Renters find and contract for units online within minutes, rarely seeing the facility until they show up with their possessions. They have unique access codes to open gates and, sometimes, the unit itself. Cameras constantly monitor activity and tighten security.   

But technology like this doesn’t just make things secure and easy for renters. It also helps owners hold costs down by foiling the plans of those who don’t pay their rent. They’re referred to as “tailgaters” because they sit behind a car accessing the gate, enter behind, clear out their units, and flee.    

“If you do it the right way, your online platform runs in conjunction with your gate. If you are in default, then you are locked out of the facility,” Maher says.   

How People Choose a Facility  

It’s said that in real estate, the three most important considerations are location, location, location. The same is true with self-storage facilities.    

“We have a lot of self-storage facilities in town, so it really doesn’t make sense to choose something far away. Typically, a mile away is the sweet spot. Anything outside of that and you’re probably going to be outside of your target demographic,” Maher says.   

Units come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from those the size of a large closet to those that house vehicles, boats, and RVs. Bold Venture, for example, also offers bay units with overhead doors, 2,000 to 5,000 square feet of open space, and a small office for contractors.   

Some units are climate-controlled, and others are dry. Plus, cost always affects choice. Sometimes, the choice is not to rent because it doesn’t make financial sense.   

Mike Burnam, StorageMart CIO and president, has seen the industry’s evolution from student storage that morphed into small business storage, then into climate-controlled storage, and then into multi-level storage.  

“It changed from an onsite manager with an apartment, to no apartment, to no manager and instant move-ins via cell phone,” Mike Burnam said in an email. “It went from a gate we had to open every morning and close every night to a totally electronic open and close. It went from a ledger card system to communication with remote stores via fax to fully computerized stores and limited staffing.”  

Cindy Ward moved from Jefferson City to Columbia ten years ago to help care for her new grandson, downsizing from a house to a condo in the process. She wanted to rent a storage unit but found it to be cost-prohibitive. She said it was difficult to let go of a lot of things, some that she wished she would have kept.   

“If you can at all possible afford a storage unit, even for a short time when you’re downsizing, I think it would be a good idea,” Ward says. “Give yourself some time to really consider what you want to keep and what you can live without.”  

The growth of self-storage facilities here might help keep rent costs from rising, at least, until demand outruns supply again. Moreover, new facilities, needing to cover construction costs and high interest rates while building occupancy rates to 60 percent or more, can’t outprice the current market.   

“It’s going to be interesting to see the newer facilities that come online, with the costs of construction and the rents that they have to charge, how competitive that they’re going to be with existing facilities,” Maher says.   

Who Rents All These Units?  

There are a lot of reasons why people rent self-storage. But in every case, it’s because they don’t have the space at home to accommodate their “stuff,” whether it’s personal or professional.   

In a college town like Columbia, students are a major demographic, but they aren’t ideal for facilities that prefer long-term renters. Students rent for days sometimes, storing items in between apartment moves.   

Then, there are the packrats, which Schnieders himself admits to being.  

“I’m like everyone else,” he says. “My basement is packed full of stuff my wife has told me repeatedly to get rid of, but I haven’t. If I didn’t have a big basement, I would have self-storage.”  

Some, like Ward, need storage space to give time to work through a housing transition. Others inherit property from family and need to put it somewhere until they decide what to do with it.   

Whatever the reason, most people keep paying rent for far longer than they planned.   

“Everyone moves into self-storage thinking they’re going to be there for three months. The truth of that is, if they say three months, there’s a good chance it will be two years,” Schnieders says. “Probably only about 10 percent of the population has the discipline to stick to their plan. Most of the time, there’s a good chance it’s going to be double. A good percentage of the time it will last four times as long. And there’s another small group that will never move out.”   

“Most of self-storage should not exist,” Schnieders adds with a chuckle. Fortunately for Columbia’s facility owners, as well as for their renters, it does.  

The StorageMart Story  

There are now seven Burnams involved in StorageMart’s international business. Mike Burnam said the first in the line — his father, Gordon — “was a serial entrepreneur and never found a business he did not want to start or try.”  

While on a family vacation in the early ‘70s to the Texas coast, there was rain every day that threatened to wash out their time away. But, “just like back home in Columbia,” Mike said his father thought a Sunday drive around was a good choice, leading to multiple drives around and through Corpus Christi.   

“On one of those drives, Dad saw these long rows of buildings and stopped in to talk with the person onsite, who in those days was generally the owner,” Mike recalls. After another two or three stops “and the kids running around the driveways,” Gordon Burnam bought one storage building’s lease for $10.  

Back in Columbia, Gordon convinced Kirksville S&L — long since defunct — to loan him the money to build the first self-storage facility in the Midwest on Rangeline. The company has bought and sold that property at least three times, and it now serves the same purpose as it did in the beginning: serving the student population to store their belongings between semesters. Other small businesses also leased space, and the site went from one building to more than 120,000 square feet today.   

Mike Burnam said his dad thought the business was scalable and partnered with the founding family of Boone County National Bank, now Central Bank, to develop around the Southeast U.S.  

That was the beginning of the company that now encompasses 320-plus stores and over twenty-two million square feet in the U.S., Canada, and the UK.  

“Anyone can build a storage facility, but running a successful operation is a different challenge entirely. In today’s market, it takes far more than just offering a 10-by-10 unit for someone’s extra stuff. It requires … a sharp focus on market trends to maximize performance throughout the year,” Mike added. “Storage operations have evolved into a tech-driven, customer-focused business — and that’s where we excel.”