Forum Partners-Backed Pocket Storage Opens First London Self-Storage Facility
Forum Partners, a global real estate investment and asset management firm, and its United Kingdom-based portfolio company, Pocket Storage, announced the opening of Biscuit Factory, Pocket’s first self-storage location in London.
During the past few months, Pocket Storage has worked to outfit the site at 100 Drummond Road with modern self-storage infrastructure through digital access controls, automated leasing, and space optimization. The Bermondsey location features 134 storage units spanning 10,000 square feet of net rental storage area, distributed across two floors.
Earlier this year, AltsWire reported that Forum Partners and Pocket Storage had fully subscribed a fund, completing the first round of fundraising to develop self-storage facilities in ultra-urban U.K. markets.
“Our fully automated model allows us to price rents below market average while ensuring a secure, convenient experience for customers,” said Max Wilson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Pocket Storage. “By providing a modern storage solution at a competitive price point, we believe we will be able to capture significant market share in an underserviced market.”
Eighty percent of residents within a 15-minute drive time live in flats or apartments. This dense, highly mobile population is currently served by only two traditional self-storage facilities, underscoring why Pocket Storage sees Bermondsey as an ideal market.
Wilson continued that the opportunity “exemplifies Pocket’s ability to identify and reposition real estate assets with considerable intrinsic value, while establishing a scalable foothold in the U.K.’s fragmented self-storage market.”
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 underserved 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.
Pocket Storage intends to open 72,500 square feet across four centrally located London facilities in the coming months. After reaching scale in the United Kingdom, 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.
Since 2002, Forum Partners has deployed approximately $7.7 billion of capital across 24 countries and over 100 investments. Its operating companies and affiliates directly or indirectly own or manage over $14 billion of commercial real estate in the United States and worldwide.
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