We are pleased to report to our Investors with this summary of the Bluebird Storage
facilities that are currently in operation, as well as the two facilities that are
currently in the construction phase. The deal pipeline currently holds several more
facilities and development locations, including Class ‘A’ opportunities in the interior
of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario (Greater Toronto Area).
Please click the below link for the full report:
Our main focus for the remainder of 2022 will be continuing to grow our Shark Club members along with B2B revenue while reducing costs
Dufferin Storage had a strong 2021, finishing the year at ~40% occupancy and operational break even. This is exceptional for a storage asset to achieve in less than 1.5 years.
This strong lease up trend continues in 2022. Dufferin is currently at 45.6% occupancy after an exceptional Q1. Although official targets are lower, management and our facility manager Bluebird have set a stretch goal of 60% occupancy for year end.
Revenues continue to increase and Dufferin Storage is now starting to eat into its debt coverage – a very promising sign. Management believes that full profitability is achievable by year end if Dufferin continues its strong lease up trend.
Management completed the 2021 year end and audit for Dufferin LP in April of this year. The audit is being sent out to all investors and an AGM will be scheduled for later this spring.
Our goals for 2022 are to focus on membership growth and profitability for Dufferin Wash, to achieve 60% occupancy and full break even for Dufferin Storage, and to hopefully be able to begin distributions to investors by the end of 2022.
In February 2021, Wright-Parkway Self-Storage LP was formed by StoreWest & Bluebird to acquire two facilities, one in Truro, Nova Scotia and the other in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The Parkway facility in Truro is 21,786 SF net rentable with 259 units. While, the Wright facility in Dartmouth is 68,957 SF net rentable with 607 units.
Revenue management has continued to be Bluebird’s focus with these stabilized assets. It has instituted a two-pronged revenue management program targeting both new & existing clients.
• Retrofit of the Automatic Truck bay is complete. New foam cannons and brushes are a big hit. Significant amount of maintenance fixes completed year-to-date.
• Memberships continue to grow with over 1300 members currently. This is up from ~700 members at start of year. We now have over 165 fleet clients as well.
• Sales in the overall car/truck wash are up 33% YoY. We have also dropped our labour by close 20% this year, while getting our chemical cost down as well.
Dufferin Storage celebrated its first anniversary at the end of August. The facility achieved 35% occupancy in its first year – well ahead of projections (20% is considered normal).
At its current level of occupancy the storage facility is essentially at operational breakeven (an impressive feat in one year).
Storage is now entering the quieter period (Nov. – March), but management will continue to focus on financial occupancy while looking forward to the 2022 lease up season.
*Please note our pricing vs our competitors below
Management is currently working with our lender on terming out the construction loan for Dufferin Storage. As part of this process, updated appraisals were obtained on both the storage and wash from Colliers.
Colliers appraised the wash at $15.1M and storage at $28.3M (as is). This provides a total project appraisal of $43.4M with a total project cost of ~$29M (~$14.4M gain on $11M equity). While this is no guarantee of exit value it is encouraging.
Despite our next scheduled update not being until July, the General Partners (GP) of StoreWest Dufferin LP felt it was important to communicate with everyone considering the current uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. We will cover off both segments of the business in order.
This business is currently open and operational. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have made adjustments on an operational basis to ensure we are adhering to current and evolving provincial guidelines. First, effective March 30, we have adjusted our hours of business to 8AM to 8PM in order to provide more flexibility for our employees in these extraordinary times. The safety of our employees and customers is the top priority. This adjusment has allowed employees to more easily arrange transportation and childcare for their families, while allowing us to stay open and maintain a properly staffed work environment. This change was implemented only after considerable review of operational data and analysis of the highest income-generating hours.
At Great White Car and Truck Wash, we have been blessed with a very dedicated staff, many of whom have been with us since we opened. While the car wash is considered a low risk environment with respect to the virus, their loyalty and reliability has been exceptional. To offset the overall reduction of working hours available to our employees, we have implemented a temporary $2.00/hour raise. We want to ensure that the efforts of our staff during this difficult time are being recognized and appreciated, and we anticipate that these changes will help them weather the challenges of the situation.
As we analyze government protocols and newly implemented rules, our partners have taken the firm stance that we are presently classified as an essential service. Car washes have generally fallen into this classification and our truck wash with 90+ fleets under contract only strengthens this point. Great White is currently providing needed cleaning and washing services to a wide variety of essential companies including food transportation companies, towing companies, utility companies and Alberta Health Services. We will continue to monitor the situation, and, should this categorization change, we will inform all stakeholders of the same. Otherwise we will continue to operate the wash and keep our staff employed.
We have been very encouraged by the operating results from the newly opened car/truck wash. The business model is very stable with the majority of revenue coming from car wash monthly memberships (currently over 500 with a goal to get to 1,500-2,000); and fleet contracts for trucks (currently 40 fleet contracts and the demand has been so high that they have to be very selective not to overload the system). The car and truck wash is looking like it is going to be very successful. On this site, we also have a self-storage facility that is under construction. They plan to be open for business in 2020. This site is going to be marketed, along with their Chestermere project, as there has been strong interest in purchasing the property even prior to construction being completed. There is currently a lot of money in Canada being invested in self storage, therefore we could end up selling the storage business in 2020. This would result in large distributions to unitholders while still having a profitable car/truck wash paying healthy dividends to shareholders.