The Best Ever CRE Show JF 4087: Solar-Powered Storage, Smart Financing and Future Growth ft. Steven Wear
Nov 12, 2025
Join Steven Wear, the Chief Marketing Officer of SSSE, a Chicago-based self-storage investment firm, as he dives into innovative strategies in the self-storage market. He discusses targeting smaller markets to avoid competition and how local moratoriums can support his firm's growth. Explore SSSE's use of creative seller-financing techniques and how solar power and geothermal energy are revolutionizing storage facilities into power-generating assets. Steven reveals insights on maximizing returns and the future of self-storage in an evolving energy landscape.
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Secondary/Tertiary Market Focus
- SSSE targets secondary and tertiary markets to avoid primary-market oversaturation and zoning competition.
- That geographic focus preserved returns for them through COVID and afterward.
Close The Door Behind New Developments
- When developing, lobby municipalities for moratoriums to limit new competing self-storage projects.
- Use third-party feasibility studies to convince towns that more supply would harm community needs.
Bought Occupied Facility Near New Competition
- SSSE bought an existing facility near Flint that was already 75–80% occupied instead of the newer competing facility.
- They relied on tenant stickiness to maintain occupancy despite a newer nearby project.