Columbia, MO-based operator StorageMart has shelved a planned expansion at a facility it owns in Saskatoon, the largest city in the Canada’s Saskatchewan province.
A slumping economy and a rise in competing self-storage development projects, led the company to reverse course on the 50,000-square-foot expansion.
“This market just cannot bear the massive increase in supply that is coming,” said StorageMart president Cris Burnam.
Of the 165 facilities owned and operated by StorageMart, 63 are located in Canada.
The slumping economy led StorageMart to shelve expansion plans at its 11th Street facility in Saskatoon, SK
Oversupply
Saskatoon currently has about 600,000 square feet of storage space according to StorageMart, with another 185,000 square feet coming online in the next six months.
Some of the projects include: BRITEBOX, which is adding 13,000 square feet of space in the next three months; Shield Self Storage, which is building up to 60,000 square feet of modular storage; and Stor All Mini Storage is expanding by 8,000 square feet. A new 70,000 squarefoot facility is also being built on Marquis Drive in Saskatoon.
In addition, StorageMart itself recently completed a 44,000-square-foot expansion at its multistory facility on 1st Avenue in Saskatoon.
Slumping economy
Aaron Facca, Saskatchewan regional manager for StorageMart, said he expects there to be a “glut in storage units for the foreseeable future.”
According to the Conference Board of Canada, Sasktoon’s economy grew more than six percent during five of the six years. Economic growth for 2015 is forecast at just 1.7 percent.
That is because commodity prices for the region’s chief exports—oil, potash, uranium and wheat—have dropped sharply. As a result, Saskatoon has experienced a decrease in population and job growth.
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