Marking one of the largest self-storage transactions in Australia, Blackstone have invested $400m to acquire the Fort Knox Self Storage portfolio of 11 assets in Melbourne and to grow the brand nationally.
Fort Knox is one of the leading self-storage solutions providers in Victoria with 11 state-of-the-art facilities spread across Melbourne’s residential areas.
The Fort Knox business has been the outcome of a business partnership that started over the last 22 years ago with McMullin and the Wilson Family joined forces to develop what was then a single self-storage site in Dandenong to what has now become one of Victoria’s most recognised self-storage brands.
Chris Tynan, Head of Real Estate Australia, Blackstone, said: “We are pleased to begin our partnership with Fort Knox and grow our self-storage footprint in Australia. Backed by Blackstone’s scale and expertise, we aim to help Fort Knox expand and scale operations to accommodate customers’ increasing demand for high-quality storage space nationally. Self-storage is a rapidly growing trend in Australia, underpinned by its rising population particularly in urban areas like Melbourne and the country’s e-commerce boom.”
Strong e-commerce growth is also propelling Australia’s self-storage sector. Australia is currently the 11th largest e-commerce market in the world, and revenue is predicted to jump to US$32 billion by 2024 from nearly US$26 billion in 2020, a year-on-year increase of about 16%. Demand has been further fueled during the pandemic as people have sought well-managed self-storage spaces to support more flexible living and working arrangements.
This transaction marks Blackstone’s second self-storage investment in Australia, following its successful acquisition of the KeepSafe portfolio in Perth, Western Australia, earlier this year. In Hong Kong, Blackstone owns a majority stake in two self-storage assets. Similarly, in the United States, Blackstone completed its acquisition of Simply Self Storage in December 2020.
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