Self Storage Feasibility Study in Washington

Large facilities, one bank holding many

Washington self storage loans are among the larger in the class. The cell holds 58 SBA loans from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $94.3 million, with a median of $1.3 million that is 1.43x the national median for the class. Half the loans fall between $619,150 and $2.1 million. The state ranks 16 of 50 for self storage, though the class holds 19 of 39 places among Washington asset classes, and a location quotient of 0.86x says storage is a thinner part of Washington approvals than of the national book. No metric in this cell is flagged against Washington lending overall or self storage nationally.

Who holds the storage loans

Live Oak Banking Company towers over 7(a) lending at 17 loans and $45.9 million, nearly half of the cell dollars by itself. BMO Bank National Association has 5 loans and $4.9 million. Among 504 lenders Evergreen Business Capital shows 7 loans and $9.8 million, and Northwest Business Development Association has 5 and $4.8 million. The 7(a) program carried 40 loans and 504 carried 18, while franchises are only 1.7% of loans. Spokane County leads with 7 loans, Thurston has 5, and Clark and Jefferson have 4 each.

A volatile calendar

Annual counts swing from 13 loans and $23.2 million in FY2020 to no loans in FY2023, then 2 loans and $2.2 million in FY2024. Cancelled files make up at least 9.8% of storage approvals through FY2024, and up to 11.8% on the generous count. The 36 funded loans in the charge-off cohort come in at 0.00% written off so far and 0.00% across the first five years, floors that later defaults could raise.

Testing a Washington storage project

The Washington evidence favours institutional sized projects, so the study should justify the scale. Count rentable square feet per household within the trade area, check how much supply has opened recently, and test achievable rents against competing facilities, including climate controlled units. Land, entitlement and site work will be a large share of a project near $1.3 million, so permits and stormwater requirements should be confirmed early. Coverage has to be shown at a slow absorption pace, with a downside case for rents. The appraisal will rest on stabilised income, which makes the lease up schedule the key assumption.

A coding limit

Boat and recreational vehicle storage lacks a dedicated code, so those projects sit inside self storage or general warehousing and overlap with the warehouse page.