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On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly

A story of smart development and swift success

By Drew Whitney

Meet Ira Bellinkoff and Thomas Martucci, just two regular guys who seemingly fell into the storage business in Edgewater, Fla. They met back in 2008 while working at a commercial real estate appraisal company, which eventually inspired them to open their own On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidlycommercial real estate company–Edge Realty Advisors–in 2015. 

Explains Ira: “While witnessing all the growth in Florida, and particularly the development of large master planned subdivisions with HOA’s, we had a light bulb go off with the premise that people need a place to store their toys. As boaters ourselves, this made sense as we knew there was a finite supply of boat & RV storage facilities. That’s where our interest and search began.”

As they moved forward, they gleaned any knowledge they could about operating a successful storage facility and invested it in a flagship property in Cocoa. The education gained through the process was then applied to their next project:  On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage. True to the name, the project couldn’t be more solid, built thoughtfully and knowledgeably from the get-go, enough to leverage the Toy Storage Nation Facility of the Month Award in the process.

Success Right Out of the Gate
 Ira and Thomas purchased the land for their project in June 2022, broke ground in summer 2023 and streamlined the construction so adeptly that they received their certificate of occupancy on Jun 7, 2024. Before they opened for business, they already had a waiting list for 50% of the units, thanks to their stealth marketing and exceptional location.

The facility encompasses 110,490 square feet of rentable space divided into 278 units. Ira and Thomas agreed to go above and beyond to offer Class A services to accommodate the security needs and conveniences of their clientele. As such, On Solid Ground offers all the following:

  1. Full Perimeter Fencing
  2. Security Gate
  3. Paved units and drives
  4. Fully enclosed, covered and canopied spaces.

They didn’t skimp on amenities either:

  1. BlueTooth Dual Entry Gates
  2. Onsite Manager
  3. 24/7 Access
  4. Four Wash Stations
  5. Dump Station
  6. Fishing Rod Rinsing Station
  7. Ice and Air Machines
  8. 20- or 30-amp power at covered and enclosed units.

Six months after opening, the facility is holding strong at 88% occupancy. Clearly they’d prepared this property impeccably, so we decided to get into the nitty gritty and hear in Ira’s own words the strategies they used to bring this vision project to fruition. Here’s how the conversation went.

Who did you work with through the development process? How long did it take, start to finish?
We purchased the land in June 2022, broke ground in summer 2023 and received our certificate of occupancy on June 7, 2024. We used a general contractor, J.M. Williams, and our own civil engineer, Tannath, helping us sharpen our pencils to meet all local regulations. Thomas and I are also cofounders of OSG Management, a management and development/design consulting firm, so we coordinated the project from start to finish. We know boats, RVs and trailering so we wanted to be hands-on with the facility’s layout and unit mix. We also continue to manage the property.  

Why was this site selected?
On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly We saw a “gap” in terms of the need for this type of product that was non-existent in northern Brevard County, Florida. Geographically, it is well connected being just a 10-minute drive to Port Canaveral and not far from the US-1 and I-95 corridors. At the northern end of the county, the property is also proximate to Rockledge, Viera and portions of Cocoa that boast strong household incomes. 

There is tremendous exposure to this site with over 40,000 vehicles per day passing this site on average, so we feel very insulated with all the highway frontage we purchased. Another positive was that from a zoning perspective RV/boat storage was already written into the zoning code by right, so that was one less hurdle to deal with.

Any difficulties with P&Z? Other challenges?
There was a lot of personnel turn over at the city of Cocoa, not something we were expecting going into the project. For example, just before we were about to get our site plan approval so we could apply for building permits the entire planning department unanimously quit on the same day. Someone was internally promoted to the planning department from public works and this slowed us down. The new staff wanted to do their job well, and we appreciate that. But, this was just one of many hurdles we had with the city.

How did you determine the unit mix, including decisions about On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly covered/uncovered?
This is our fourth RV/boat project, so part of it was analyzing the market and part of it was derived from our experience owning and operating in similar markets. Overall, premium rent is driven by covered and enclosed product. We believe more customers are becoming conscientious about extending the life of their assets by keeping them out of the sun. 

There is also a little “secret sauce” in designing a good unit mix. We reviewed a handful of engineered site plans for other properties we felt would fail because of design. Our competency comes from being operators but also active users ourselves. We understand trailering!

On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly Can you describe a little bit about the area competition and saturation?
Our location along Grissom Parkway is in an industrial node. Our closest competition is a hybrid mini-storage/boat/RV storage property operated by Midguard down in Viera, which still lacks certain features such as adequate parking stall width (theirs are only 10’) and they have no dump station. The closest competition is inferior (Class B/C product). 

Thus, during lease-up we welcomed many customers previously storing at facilities that lacked the type of ground cover, security or covered awning that they desired. We also feel our location has excellent proximity to major transportation routes as well as Port Canaveral.

How do you market the site?
Website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Google Ads, Good ole’ fashion boots on the ground. Our two frontage roads combined generate average daily traffic of 40,000 vehicles per day.

How is the site managed?
Onsite manager. We have office hours Tuesday-Saturday, 9-4, but access is 24/7.

How would you describe the experience of owning/operating the facility–reflecting on the RV/boat storage industry as a whole, experiences with clients, etc.
This business is fun because we help recreational enthusiasts store their toys. As it is a lifestyle hobby for them, they are kindhearted people who are generally easy going. As well, because of the caliber of what our customers store, we never have customer payment issues. 

As practicing commercial real estate appraisers, my partner, Thomas, and I were well attuned with the market and noted all the new subdivisions being built lacked RV and boat storage. 

My experience began back in August 2018 when my business partner and I mailed out letters to existing facility owners in hope of acquiring one, and we did over in Edgewater, Florida. After we divested our first and second properties in Edgewater in May 2022, we closed on the Cocoa site in June 2022.

It is certainly quite challenging to find sites suitable for this type of use and at the correct On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly price point to make a project feasible. Fortunately, it appears that cap rates are beginning to compress for stabilized product. Land values have continued to stay high in Florida, which is due to the dwindling supply of industrial land, an entitlement bucket we are categorically placed in usually. 

We have plans for future development of additional 10-acre development programs and are looking at developing luxury condo-storage. There is still plenty of opportunity in this segment but others have caught on to this niche so you have to really do your homework. In our opinion, a boat or RV owner would rather store with other boat and RV owners. Thus, while mini-storage operators are installing ancillary spaces, not all tenants share the same care or interest, nor do those facilities provide the design layout or amenities that a purpose-built RV/boat facility comprises, which is where we are targeting.

My partner, Thomas, preaches often that the legal barrier to entry is arguably one of the On Solid Ground RV & Boat Storage Scores Facility of the Month Award, Solidly greatest misunderstood elements of this asset class and is grossly undervalued by buyers and brokers. Assets that have traded over the last five to six years are largely mom-and-pop facilities that in many instances are grandfathered uses in Florida. The sales volume witnessed over the past several years will be hard to replicate because getting new supply out of the ground is a major legal challenge. It’s something we understand very well being developers of this asset while still actively appraising CRE, and particularly IOS properties that compete for the same land. 

Developers of this product are a couple steps ahead of buyers and brokers on understanding the upside in value directly related to the legal barrier to entry. A great example of this evolution can be seen in IOS properties. For years, developers understood the limited supply and high legal barrier to entry for this product. However, it wasn’t until brokers and buyers caught on that values really soared over the past three to five years. Boat/RV values had a first run-up in value by what we refer to as the “RecNation effect” but a second wave will come when buyers and brokers grow fatigued trying to acquire these assets yet realizing supply is limited and the legal barrier to development is steep. 

Partnering with a Florida-based developer like OSG Management can help buyers expedite the process while not missing on design/unit mix. The legal barrier to entry is real, but it also insulates existing properties and markets from becoming oversupplied overnight. Boat/RV storage should not experience the same mushrooming effect of new supply that has occurred in mini storage over the past decade.

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