Haut-parleurs
Steve Silvester
Stuart Blackie
Panel
There is a growing level of interest from institutional investors into the self storage market in Europe as more funds are looking for non traditional investments. We hear from some of the recent entrants to the market as well as some investors that have been here for some time. What do they find attractive about the market, what kinds of sites are attractive to them and what do they see as the future of the industry in Europe.
Mr. Silvester began his commercial real estate career 15 years ago. He joined forces with Clear Sky Capital, as they launched their UK Self-Storage efforts, as CFO and partner in Padlock Capital Partners. He is actively involved with the capital stack both from institutional investors and public market IPO’s, debt raising, development, investor communications and collaboration across the platforms. Prior to joining Clear Sky, Mr. Silvester was Chief Financial Officer for Palace Capital plc, a publicly-listed REIT in the UK, which focused on UK regional commercial property investment and development. Mr. Silvester’s public company experience has covered managing investor relations, investment banking, REIT conversion, foreign exchange matters and consolidating acquisitions.
Clear Sky Capital is a privately owned real estate investment management and development company with offices in the United States and United Kingdom. Clear Sky and its affiliates have acquired or developed over £1.1 Billion of real estate investments since 2009. Through Clear Sky and it’s UK Subsidiary, Padlock Capital Partners, Mr. Silvester has been instrumental in growing the self-storage property count to 19 Locations across the UK with 4 more under contract. The company operates under the “Collective Self Storage” and “StoreQuest” banners in the US and “Cinch Self Storage” in the UK.
Stuart Blackie joined Fremont Realty Capital in 2006 with asset management assignments in office, retail, lodging, residential and non-traditional sectors such as storage real estate, senior housing, and land investments. In 2014, after spearheading Fremont’s re-entry into the European self-storage business, he relocated to Barcelona, Spain and dedicated his efforts towards building Fremont into a leading European self-storage investor. Mr. Blackie, now based in London, UK, serves on the Board of Directors of Bluespace, the largest Spanish self-storage platform and has asset management responsibilities for MyPlace, the largest German/Austrian self-storage platform. Additionally, he has responsibility for new investment and add-on opportunities throughout the UK and Europe.
Prior to joining Fremont Realty Capital, Mr. Blackie was Director, Capital Markets and Head of Investor Relations for Shurgard Storage Centers and before that Corporate Finance Manager for its offshore division headquartered in Brussels. He began his career with the real estate investment banking group at Credit Suisse First Boston in London.
Mr. Blackie received a Bachelor of Management Studies in International Management, Finance & Accounting from the University of Waikato (New Zealand) and is a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).
Daniel McKegney CFA is an Assistant Vice President in Heitman’s European Investment Research group. In this role, he researches macroeconomic and demographic trends, capital market developments and real estate fundamentals of European property markets in order to help form investment strategies. He also supports the process of forecasting and modelling European property market fundamentals. Prior to working at Heitman, Daniel worked at CBRE in London, where he primarily focused on European retail and logistics markets. He received a First Class Honours degree in Economic Science (BSc) from the University of Manchester in 2017.