The Challenge
Ongoing stock market volatility has had a number of effects of late, not least of which is an uptick in the number of investors shifting capital to alternative investments like commercial real estate. That upsurge in interest has spurred new development activity and, ultimately, increased competition in the most in-demand asset classes. All of this competition has made it more difficult for commercial real estate firms to stand out and speak to prospective investors hoping to find opportunities in line with their financial goals. This challenge is further magnified in some of the less-glamorous asset classes. Developments like medical office or self-storage, while lacking the flashiness of other investments, are highly stable, attractive assets in our current yield environment. These asset classes continue to draw increased investor interest when effectively promoted, but news surrounding self-storage can often struggle to cut through the noise created by higher profile, large-scale projects.

Our Client
The Hampshire Companies, a Morristown, NJ-based real estate investment firm, has been one of the nation’s premier self-storage developers for last two decades. As one of the most experienced developers in the asset class, Hampshire’s experts are uniquely qualified to speak to the ongoing trends in the self-storage industry. Over the past several months, Hampshire has brought many projects to market and R&J has been able to secure significant coverage for those projects.

The Placement
R&J saw an opportunity to further leverage Hampshire’s experience and recent news surrounding self-storage development to position our client as a thought leader. We sought out opportunities for Hampshire executives to offer insights on the overall market and how their investment strategy aligns with the current trends to create value.

R&J utilized Hampshire’s recent announcement of a self-storage development joint venture partnership to pitch Hampshire executives to leading real estate news publications. Through leveraging this news and Hampshire’s expertise, R&J was able to secure a feature placement for Michael Legacki, Senior Acquisition Manager at Hampshire, in Commercial Property Executive to speak about Hampshire’s ongoing work in self-storage and the overall trends in the industry.

The placement appeared on Commercial Property Executive’s homepage and in their Digital Digest monthly online publication. Through securing a feature placement in one of the industry’s most-read publications, R&J was able to position our client as an expert on self-storage development. Additionally, our client was able to discuss their upcoming projects and inform the larger real estate community about their strategic goals.