The examples abound. Publicly traded real estate investment trusts such as Public Storage Properties, Shurgard Storage and Storage USA have established significant presences here. U-Haul International, a major storage firm nationwide, also is a player in South Florida. And the investment community has been pouring a lot of money into self-storage. Deerfield Beach's Stor-All has some of that cash.
Challenges facing the industry include potential overbuilding and difficulty landing financing.
There's also a lingering bad reputation among dubious neighbors and municipal officials. Still, the overall outlook for self-storage is strong, most observers say. In all, South Florida was expected to add 1.1 million square feet of mini-storage between October 1996 and September 1997, according to F.W. Dodge. In addition to Stor-All, there's a laundry list of developers planning new storage space in South Florida. A few hurdles The South Florida building boom comes in spite of obstacles not present in other Sunbelt cities, such as wetlands mitigation, high land costs and strict building codes.