I am trying to complete a really rough feasability study for an area in Akron, Ohio. Does anyone have the almanac that woud tell me the average square foot of storage per person in the Akron area. If I had the mini co almanac I could look it up but they want a lot of money for it and it was going to take a week to get to me I need the number right away. Thanks.

The numbers in the almanac are very general numbers. Be careful using those numbers for important information gathering. There are several feasibility companies in the industry that can give you a more accurate numbers. Our web site(insideselfstorage.com) has a feasibility category that you can access at no charge. There is also a list of feasibility companies on our buyers guide section of the web site that will help you as well. Good Luck! And thanks for participating in our forum.

davelile:

The two national research studies conducted for the SSA developed rates of usable based upon households. The 2007 report projected that national 9.5% of households are using self storage today and that the average customers had 1.3 units. They also projected that 20% of customers were business users. So if you have say 25,000 households within the target market area for the location, lets call it a 10 minute drive time, the calculation becomes straight forward.

25,000 households
9.5% national average usage
2,375 users
1.3 unit average per user
3,088 units
115 sq ft average unit size
355,120 sq ft of residential demand
88,780 sq ft commercial demand
443,900 sq ft total demand

There are a number of ways that people are calculating Demand Potential. This is one method based upon the national SSA research. Please remember that this is a quantitative not qualitative. You may be in a market area that appears to be near equilibrium with the total square footage of existing space in the market is near the demand potential. However, when you examine the competition closely you quickly realize that the majority are first generation projects that have no climate controlled spaces, no security is present, and they are unpaved and have no on-site management. There still may be room in the target market to become the “shinning star” with all the bells and whistles IF AND ONLY IF you are willing to take the risk and the prevailing rental rates support the development of the project.

Hope that these thoughts help.

Best of luck with your study.

MisterJim444

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Thanks everyone for the information mr 444 really knows his stuff but how do I get the total household count. Is that on the post office site: or the 2000 cencus report. What do you do to get the correct count. I do like your idea of the older projects. This one will be state of the art and will have all the bells and whistles. The other locations in the area are not as nice. and are older.