Mitiska REIM, a leading specialist investor in European convenience real estate, has announced the opening of its fourth self-storage facility in a joint venture partnership with STORO, located in Groot-Bijgaarden on the outskirts of Brussels. This latest opening on behalf of the MEREP 3 fund is the largest self-storage project to date with STORO, spanning a gross leasable area (GLA) of 6,928 sqm.
The Groot-Bijgaarden site offers 687 units ranging in size from 1 sqm to 30 sqm, spread over four floors. This project involved the retrofitting of a former office building to create a modern and sustainable self-storage facility, designed to achieve a “Very Good” score on the BREEAM scale.
Located in a highly visible location in the new Westgate Business Park development close to the Brussels E19 ring road, the site is easily accessible from the E40 and R0 highways, offering convenient access to both local customers and more than 1.3 million people within a 20-minute drive. As a separate part of the development, Mitiska REIM has acquired the office units on the top floor of the building as its new headquarters.
Like other STORO developments, STORO Groot-Bijgaarden is a next-generation self-storage facility, offering customers a unique digital booking and onboarding process, a keyless system for units managed on an app and a fully digital automated service.
Jorinne De Bruyn, Managing Director of STORO, comments: “This latest opening is part of our plan to roll out the innovative STORO concept across cities in Belgium. Our existing sites in Brecht and Mechelen now have occupancy rates exceeding 85 percent, our recent opening in Roeselare is ramping up according to plan, and we have three further sites scheduled to open in the next 18 months.”
Bart Rabaey, Mitiska REIM’s Chief Investment Strategy Officer, adds: “We are seeing increased demand for self-storage in what is currently an underserved market in Europe. As we look to the year ahead, we believe that self-storage and wider convenience real estate is well positioned, underpinned by constrained supply, strong tenant demand and positive NOI growth. We think the coming months could present a strong vintage year for investors with dry powder available to capitalize on this window of opportunity.”