The Space Race.COUPLE'S REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT FIRM CARVED A NICHE IN THE SELF-STORAGE INDUSTRY BY OFFERING ADDITIONAL SERVICES GEARED TO SMALL BUSINESSES "BOXES," Irshad-Ul-Haque observed, "don't complain. Tenants always complain." It is with that nugget Nugget A 15 year Gold FHLMC (Freddie Mac) bond; similar to a Dwarf. of wisdom that Haque and his wife Linda have built a $12 million-a-year real estate business from a $28,000 investment in a Temple City duplex. Their self-storage property that makes up part of their holdings has thrived against much larger competitors. The small purchase in the early 1970s -- with $500 down -- eventually led the Haques to start Bantam Associates Inc., a real-estate investment firm based in Pasadena. Bantam has grown to include more than 20 commercial and residential properties, mainly within the San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. , and two subsidiary companies, Stor It All and Tri-City Archives Inc. The three companies, which together employ nearly 60 people, generated revenues of $12 million in 2000, up from $10.5 million the prior year. Haque, who was a manufacturing specialist at Xerox Corp., and Linda, then a social worker, knew little about real estate when they made the first investment. "We had no idea what we were getting into," Haque said. "It just happened." By putting together limited partnerships with colleagues at Xerox, the Haques were able to amass a number of residential, properties. Avoiding the downturn But as the real estate market began nose-diving in the early '90s, the Haques decided they needed to diversify. The couple bought a Los Feliz storage facility for $13 million at a bankruptcy auction in 1991. "That's one of the best businesses I ever got into," Haque said. "It's so easy to run." The Los Feliz site, with 3,400 units on an 8.5-acre lot, is already one of the largest single self-storage locations in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Bantam will soon add about 100 more units and expand its services into a neighboring building recently purchased for about $1 million. Rentals range from $50 to $650 per month, depending on the size of the unit, and the business boasts an impressive 97 percent occupancy rate Noun 1. occupancy rate - the percentage of all rental units (as in hotels) are occupied or rented at a given time pct, per centum, percent, percentage - a proportion in relation to a whole (which is usually the amount per hundred) -- above the industry average of 90 to 92 percent. Haque attributes the high occupancy level to his company's ability to provide small businesses with more than storage. Stor It All furnishes customers with Ryder truck rentals, shipping, free conference room space and email service See Internet e-mail service. . It's a "one-stop shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into ," Haque said. Such full-service facilities are rare, said Dean Keller, president of Bancap Self Storage Group, a brokerage that deals in only self-storage properties. "(Haque) has such a huge facility that he has to be innovative in his ways of attracting additional business," Keller said. This approach "makes sense in an area where rents are so high," Keller said. Analyst John Sheehan of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. said it's difficult for independent storage facilities to compete with the likes of Public Storage and other large chains, but he pointed out that convenience often wins over more customers than brand-name recognition. There is a big need for self-storage in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, because few facilities were built in the 1990s. "It's relatively hard to get the entitlement to build a storage location in a good location. Cities like things that generate sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue or employment and, unfortunately, self-storage facilities don't do much of either one of those," Keller said. Spinning off Tri-City, Archives -- which stores, catalogs and delivers files to banks, hospitals, law firms This list of the world's largest law firms by revenue is taken from The Lawyer and The American Lawyer and is ordered by 2006 revenue:[1]
"We are big enough to give (clients) all the services needed and small enough to give them very personalized service," said Haque's sister, Khalida Samad. "That's our niche." Spotlight Bantam Associates Inc. Year Founded: 1980 Core Business: Document and general self-storage Revenues in 1999: $10.5 million Revenues in 2000: $12 million Revenues in 2001: $15 million (projected) Employees in 1999: 58 Employees in 2001: 58 Goal: To increase revenues by 10 to 15 percent and expand the company's community-service efforts Driving Force: The desire to provide more customer service in the industry |
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