Recent activity in the European self-storage market has highlighted the appeal of the sector to investors who are looking closer at niche and alternative real estate asset classes.

MARCOL, a private investment group, and alternative investment firm Angelo Gordon announced a new joint venture in the German self-storage market on 23 February, with the launch of Space Plus, headed by European selfstorage veteran Russell Jordan.

With a plan to invest €250 million in offmarket opportunities across Germany, Space Plus targets underperforming retail and commercial assets in high-visibility locations that will benefit from redevelopment to unleash latent value. The strategy is to build an industry benchmark selfstorage brand, in a country with low market penetration, that leverages cutting-edge technologies and hybrid staffing solutions to maximize operational efficiencies.

To date, the company has acquired five assets, which will be redeveloped as new stateof-the-art