For 40 years, Metro Self Storage®, one of the nation’s oldest and largest self storage companies, has been dedicated to providing customers with the best storage experience in the industry. In 1973, Metro founder Karl F. Nagel opened The Vault, one of the nation’s first self storage facilities, in the Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Illinois. The Vault was a huge success, with customers carrying their belongings through the mud to their storage units before the buildings were even completed. Karl knew he had discovered a winning idea.

Karl’s philosophy was simple: provide a clean, secure storage unit at a reasonable price and support it with exceptional service to the customer. This philosophy led to great success throughout the 70’s and early 80’s. After rapid growth in the Chicago market, the company introduced the Metro Self Storage® brand, supported by a new logo and image.

In the late 80’s Karl’s sons, Matthew M. Nagel and K. Blair Nagel joined the family business full time. Over the next decade the company had steady growth as the number of stores increased from 8 to 42, located in five Midwestern states. In 1997, the brothers bought out their father’s interests and formed Metro Storage LLC. Growth since 1997 has been impressive. In 2004, the company sold 42 stores to a publicly traded REIT for $184 million, the largest private self-storage transaction at the time.

Today, Metro has grown to over 90 stores in eleven states, and serves over 50,000 customers, and that same philosophy of Karl Nagel’s continues. According to Metro Chairman Matt Nagel, “Our management principals remain the same: 1) We are in the self-storage business to deliver a first-class experience to our storage customers; 2) Organizational stability is key to us because we believe it helps us deliver the best possible customer experience. We surround ourselves with the most talented employees and outside advisors that we can find and we seek long-term relationships with them. 3) We adapt our strategy to navigate all types of economic conditions. We have always done that and it is a real strength.”

The Nagel brothers have some aggressive plans for the future. They recently formed a wholly owned subsidiary company Metro Storage International (MSI) LLC, and formed a new self storage operating platform in Brazil, branded MetroFit. Plans are for MSI to add seven newly developed MetroFit self storage facilities by the end of 2014 in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first MetroFit facility is slated to open in the fourth quarter of 2013. Domestically, Metro’s growth plans are to add over twenty new stores in the next several years.

Both brothers have continued their father’s legacy of commitment to delivering the best possible self-storage experience to their customers, a strong financial performance to their investors, an excellent work environment for their employees and to giving back to the communities in which they do business. In celebration of the company’s 40th anniversary, Metro Storage LLC has made a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of children who have life-threatening medical conditions within the communities Metro serves. Proof that doing well and doing good have been key to the success of this self-storage enterprise.

About Metro Storage LLC

Metro Storage LLC, operating under the trademark Metro Self Storage® (www.metrostorage.com), is a privately owned, fully integrated real estate operating company specializing exclusively in the development, acquisition and management of self-storage facilities nationwide. Headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois with assets under management totaling $750,000,000, the Company is the 11th largest operator of self-storage facilities in the United States with over 90 stores in 11 states. More information about the firm is available at www.metrostoragecorporate.com.

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