Scott Stubbs, executive vice president and CFO of Extra Space Storage Inc . (NYSE: EXR), joined the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. During the interview, Stubbs reflected on professional and personal accomplishments and challenges surrounding the REIT’s 2004 IPO and discussed further growth opportunities ahead.
August marks the 20 th anniversary of the Extra Space IPO. Stubbs noted that in 2004, self-storage was not considered a core asset class for a real estate investor.
“We were a bit of an outlier at the time and there were still some negative connotations about self-storage. I think that it did take some time to help people understand that self-storage is a great asset class. It's very stable. It is institutional,” Stubbs said.
In addition to the long hours spent preparing for the IPO, Stubbs was also dealing with personal challenges in 2004. His two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Wilms tumor, a type of childhood cancer; her right kidney was removed, followed by 18 weeks of chemotherapy. She is doing well today, he noted, and shared coping mechanisms for those going through similar challenges.
Meanwhile, Stubbs discussed future opportunities for Extra Space, given that self-storage remains a fragmented business.
“The big companies own about 30% to 35% of the assets out there today, so I think there's still an opportunity to roll up a lot of the self-storage industry, whether that's through management or ownership…growth is still a big opportunity for Extra Space, that's in our DNA, that's who we are,” Stubbs said.