Arlen Nordhagen, chairman and CEO of National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE: NSA), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2019 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
Nordhagen will step aside as CEO and become executive chairman at the start of 2020.
Nordhagen pointed to a continuation of new development at a faster rate than demand growth within the top 25 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Since National Storage is more focused outside that top 25 MSA group, it is seeing less impact than many of its peers, he said. However, “we definitely see some new development moving into the smaller markets—fortunately it’s been more at the pace of new demand growth,” he said.
In terms of acquisitions, Nordhagen noted that a recent change is an increase in institutional investors backing larger private operators through a joint venture type structure. That’s led to increased competition across almost all markets, he said. At the same time, National Storage is also seeing more competition from its REIT peers. As a result, the company has been focused on trying to get off-market deals “because those have been better performers for us,” he said.