Pocket Storage, a U.K.-based vertically integrated owner and operator of self-storage properties, and Forum Partners, a leading global real estate investment and asset management firm, today announced their collaboration to launch a technology-enabled self-storage platform that will deliver secure, convenient and fully automated self-storage facilities in ultra-urban markets in the U.K.
“Due to high real estate costs, space limitations, zoning challenges and elevated operating costs, traditional self-storage operators have minimal exposure to densely populated urban areas,” said Max Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Pocket Storage. “Our new platform’s focus on leasing underutilized space coupled with a proprietary and fully automated booking and access system solves the traditional challenges of operating in urban areas.”
Pocket Storage intends to open 38,000 square feet across three centrally located London facilities throughout 2025, with the first location expected to open in the third quarter. The company believes London is an ideal first market since it has 13.5% of the country’s population and is accountable for 25% of its GDP but only provides 0.4 square feet of self-storage per capita—less than half of the U.K. national average.
Pocket combines proprietary booking and site access software with a real estate strategy focused on repurposing underutilized urban spaces to deliver fully automated and centrally located storage facilities in under-serviced markets. This differentiated approach enables Pocket to solve the challenges traditionally associated with operating self-storage properties in dense, urban environments: limited space and staffing costs.
Co-founder Louis Arron stated, “This is an eloquent solution that provides convenience for the consumer and economic benefit for owners of vacant retail space and underutilized parking garages. We don’t need a large footprint or extensive capital investment, and our operating flexibility can quickly bring units to market in various asset types.”
Wilson previously founded and scaled Spokesafe, a similar technology-enabled bike storage platform with approximately 30 locations throughout the U.K. He and Arron bring extensive experience in commercial real estate investment and development to Pocket’s management team. Additionally, Pocket has partnered with Forum Partners, an investment manager with more than $7.7 billion deployed in real estate companies across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, to launch and grow the new platform.
“The investment thesis and the Pocket team align perfectly with Forum’s top-down approach centered around identifying operating partners, property sectors, trends and geographies that we believe possess the capability to achieve outsized risk-adjusted returns,” said Russell Platt, CEO of Forum Partners. “We couldn’t be more excited to see where we can take this.”
After reaching scale in the U.K., Pocket Storage intends to expand across targeted urban markets worldwide through Forum’s global real estate platform and beyond, in such key markets as New York City, Paris, Tokyo and other space-constrained city centers.
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