Case Study
Blackstone-Backed Self-Storage Platform
36 to 180 properties. Under $600M to $2.8B AUM. The ops team that ran the original portfolio is the same team running it today.
5x
AUM Growth
Flat
Ops Headcount
-> 30 Min
Underwriting
Automated
Deal Processing
Sector
Self-Storage
Scale
$2.8B AUM, 180 Properties
Scope
Acquisitions, AM, Reporting
Timeline
18 months
Stack
This Blackstone-backed operator was acquiring aggressively, but every department was built for a 36-property portfolio. Analysts spent more time formatting data than evaluating deals. P&L processing blocked the first two weeks of every month. Investor reporting required a full-time analyst to compile.
We rebuilt the entire operational layer as one system that absorbed 5x growth without adding headcount.
Work performed by our founder in a prior operating role.
The Challenge
The team was acquiring five properties for every one they could properly underwrite.
ESRI, StorTrack, and internal comps pulled manually for every opportunity. Analysts spent more time finding data than evaluating deals.
Each acquisition model was a one-off build. Two analysts on the same deal produced different outputs.
P&L ingestion consumed the first two weeks of every month. Reporting couldn't start until parsing finished.
Investor reporting required a full-time analyst to compile - that same team was expected to cover a 5x-larger portfolio.
Before
Built for 36 properties
- Deal pipeline in Excel with no screening logic or market data
- Every acquisition model rebuilt from scratch
- P&L parsed by hand - two weeks before reporting could start
- Budgets on static assumptions, no churn or rate modeling
- Investor reports assembled manually from scattered sources
After
Running 180 on the same team
- Pipeline auto-populates ESRI and StorTrack for every new deal
- One standardized model with portfolio-sourced benchmarks
- P&L flows from source to reporting in minutes
- Predictive ECRI and churn models per property
- Investor packages generate on schedule from the data layer
What We Built
One system across acquisitions, asset management, and reporting - built to absorb 5x growth without adding headcount.
Deal Pipeline & Market Intelligence
- Deal flow on Monday.com, staged to match the acquisitions team's actual workflow.
- ESRI attaches demographics, income, and competitive radius to every new opportunity automatically.
- StorTrack delivers real-time street rates, occupancy, supply pipeline, and submarket positioning.
- Screening logic scores each deal against fund criteria and surfaces qualified opportunities.
P&L Automation
- Parser ingests financials in any format, maps to a standardized chart of accounts.
- Validation rules flag anomalies and format changes at ingestion.
- Two weeks of monthly analyst time reduced to exception handling.
Acquisition Model
- Standardized Excel model with unit-mix flexibility across climate-controlled, drive-up, and specialty.
- Pulls expense benchmarks from the firm's own portfolio by property type, market, and vintage.
- Sensitivity analysis across occupancy ramp, rate growth, expense inflation, and exit cap.
Predictive Asset Management
- ECRI models predict rate increase timing from tenure, street rate gaps, and submarket competition.
- Churn probability models factor unit type, rate gap, local supply, and seasonal patterns.
- Property-level dashboards track actuals against budget with variance triggers.
Data Platform & Reporting
- Cloud data platform with Databricks unifying PM, financial, market, and operating data.
- Power BI dashboards with portfolio, market, and property-level drill-down.
- Monthly investor packages generate from the data layer with built-in QA.
The Outcome
5x portfolio growth. Same team.
The team that ran 36 properties now runs 180. Deals source through a pipeline with live market data. P&L processing that blocked the first half of each month now finishes in a day. The entire operation runs on one data platform.
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