Self Storage Feasibility Study in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area

On volume Chicago sits at 3 of 513 areas for self storage, but the location quotient of 0.55x shows that storage is a lighter slice of this large metro's lending than of national lending, and the class takes just 19 of 39 slots locally. The 43 approvals between FY2017 and FY2026 total $88.9 million. A $1.0 million median comes to 1.12x the figure for the class nationally, and the central loans cover an unusually wide span, from $480,000 up to $4.5 million, so the file mixes small conversions with big new buildings.

Development companies and a bank

Program use is close to even: 23 loans ran through 7(a) and 20 through 504, which says that many Chicago storage facilities are financed as owned real estate. SomerCor 504, Inc. shows 10 loans and $19.7 million and Live Oak Banking Company 10 loans and $38.6 million, so these names hold a large part of the dollars. Lake County, IL has 12 loans, Cook County, IL 9 and Lake County, IN 5, which tells a borrower that suburban collar counties and the Indiana side carry much of the activity.

A zero that is real, and rows that are hidden

FY2018 shows 7 loans and $15.4 million, FY2021 6 loans and $4.8 million, FY2022 7 loans and $8.1 million and FY2024 7 loans and $24.0 million. FY2026 prints 0 loans and $0, a genuine count and not a suppressed one. By contrast FY2017, FY2019, FY2020, FY2023 and FY2025 are suppressed, and so are the franchise share and both loss measures, which leaves no loss floor to cite and no basis for calling any of them nil.

What a Chicago storage study must test

The decisive tests are supply and entitlement. The study should inventory competing facilities by drive time, note the age and climate control of each and track what is under construction, since rent is the output of that supply picture and the study must source it. Land cost, zoning and construction price belong beside the $1.0 million median, and the range of central loans warns that a ground-up multistory project is a different risk from a conversion. RV and boat storage is folded into this class, so the study should name the unit mix it intends. Lease-up pace drives debt service, so run a slow fill and a rate concession case. The appraiser will value stabilized income and the as-is value separately. Metro placement follows the July 2023 map.