When Extra Space Storage and Life Storage merged in July, the real estate investment trust also obtained Life Storage’s Warehouse Anywhere subsidiary in the deal. However, it wasn’t a business model that Extra Space wanted to pursue. According to Joe Margolis, CEO of Extra Space Storage, third-party logistics for warehousing isn’t their area expertise. After assessing its potential, the REIT didn’t like the profit profile of the business or its scalability. “It’s not storage,” he said.
For those reasons, Extra Space Storage sold the Warehouse Anywhere division to a group of former Life Storage employees. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. Now a standalone business, Warehouse Anywhere, which was launched in February of 2021 and is based in Williamsville, N.Y., has a workforce of 40 employees and may hire another five to 10 employees—all of which will have an ownership stake in the company. Anthony Habib, an owner and CEO, has led the division since early last year. His partners include Eddie Killeen, former Life Storage COO, and Steven Ciemcioch, former Life Storage president and head of business development. Ansir Junaid, chairman and CEO of the SupplySide Group based in Cleveland, Ohio, is an investor.
Warehouse Anywhere is a tech-enabled third-party logistics business that provides supply chain solutions for primarily small businesses and facilitates last-mile delivery of goods to homes and other businesses. It also delivers real-time data for inventory management and handling distribution. Instead of owning real estate, the company rents storage space—about 12,000 storage units nationwide—from various self-storage operators, including Extra Space Storage.
Read our previous story on the Extra Space/Life Storage merger.