EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1393311
Filing Year: 2021
Filename: 1393311_10-K_2021_0001562762-21-000058.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
ITEM 1.Business
Forward Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this document, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements which may be identified by the use of the words "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "should," "estimates" and similar expressions.
These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Factors and risks that may impact future results and performance include, but are not limited to, those described in Part 1, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These include general risks associated with the ownership and operation of real estate, including changes in demand, risk related to development, expansion and acquisition of self-storage facilities, potential liability for environmental contamination, natural disasters and adverse changes in laws and regulations governing property tax, real estate and zoning; risks associated with economic downturns in the national and local markets in which we operate; risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (the “COVID Pandemic”) or similar events, including negative economic impacts which could reduce the demand for our facilities or increase tenant delinquencies and regulatory actions to close or limit access to our facilities, limit our ability to set rents or limit our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants; the risk that there could be an out-migration of population from our markets which would reduce demand for our facilities; risks related to increased reliance on Google as a customer acquisition channel; risks associated with international operations including, but not limited to, unfavorable foreign currency rate fluctuations and changes in tax laws; the impact of the legal and regulatory environment, as well as national, state and local laws and regulations including, without limitation, those governing environmental issues, taxes, our tenant reinsurance business, and labor; risks due to ballot initiatives or other actions that could remove the protections of Proposition 13 with respect to our real estate and result in substantial increases in our assessed values and property tax bills in California; changes in United States federal or state tax laws related to the taxation of real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and other corporations; security breaches or a failure of our networks, systems or technology could adversely impact our operations or our business, customer and employee relationships or result in fraudulent payments; risks associated with the self-insurance of certain business risks; and delays and cost overruns on our projects to develop new facilities or expand our existing facilities.
These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or as of the dates indicated in the statements. All of our forward-looking statements, including those in this report, are qualified in their entirety by this statement. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, new estimates, or other factors, events or circumstances after the date of these forward looking statements, except when expressly required by law. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements in this report, or which management may make orally or in writing from time to time, neither as predictions of future events nor guarantees of future performance.
General Discussion of our Business
Public Storage (referred to herein as “the Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), a Maryland REIT, was organized in 1980. Our principal business activities include the ownership and operation of self-storage facilities and other related operations including tenant reinsurance and third-party self-storage management. We are the industry leading owner and operator of self-storage properties with a recognizable brand, including the ubiquitous orange color, which is one of the most recognizable within the industry.
Self-storage Operations:
We acquire, develop, own and operate self-storage facilities, which offer storage spaces for lease on a month-to-month basis, for personal and business use. We are the largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities in the U.S. with physical presence in most major markets and 38 states. We believe our scale, brand name and technology platform afford us competitive advantages. At December 31, 2020, we held interests in and consolidated 2,548 self-storage facilities (an aggregate of 175 million net rentable square feet of space) operating under the “Public Storage” brand name. We own all of the economic interest in these facilities, except for 21 of these facilities held with other noncontrolling interests.
Ancillary and Other Operations:
We reinsure policies held by tenants against losses to goods stored at the self-storage facilities we own, as well as those we manage for third parties. These policies cover claims for losses related to specified events up to a maximum limit of $5,000 per storage unit. We reinsure all risks in this program, but purchase insurance from an independent third party insurer to cover this exposure for a limit of $15.0 million for losses in excess of $5.0 million per occurrence. At December 31, 2020, there were approximately 990,000 certificates held by our self-storage customers, representing aggregate coverage of approximately $3.9 billion.
At December 31, 2020, we managed 92 facilities for third parties, and are under contract to manage 25 additional facilities including 24 facilities that are currently under construction. In addition, we sell merchandise, primarily locks and cardboard boxes at our self-storage facilities.
We hold a 42% equity interest in PS Business Parks, Inc. (“PSB”) and a 35% interest in Shurgard Self Storage SA (“Shurgard”). PSB is a publicly held REIT that owns, operates, acquires and develops commercial properties, primarily multi-tenant flex, office, and industrial parks. At December 31, 2020, PSB owned and operated 27.7 million rentable square feet of commercial space. Shurgard is a public company traded on Euronext Brussels under the “SHUR” symbol and owns 241 self-storage facilities (13.2 million net rentable square feet) located in seven countries in Western Europe operated under the “Shurgard” brand name.
For all periods presented herein, we have elected to be treated as a REIT, as defined in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). For each taxable year in which we qualify for taxation as a REIT, we will not be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our “REIT taxable income” (generally, taxable income subject to specified adjustments, including a deduction for dividends paid and excluding our net capital gain) that is distributed to our shareholders. We believe we met these requirements in all periods presented herein and we expect to continue to qualify as a REIT.
We report annually to the SEC on Form 10-K, which includes financial statements certified by our independent registered public accountants. We also report quarterly to the SEC on Form 10-Q, which includes unaudited financial statements. We expect to continue such reporting.
On our website, www.publicstorage.com, we make available, free of charge, our Annual Reports on Form 10- K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports and amendments are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. The information contained on our website is not a part of, or incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Competition
Ownership and operation of self-storage facilities is highly fragmented. As the largest owner of self-storage facilities, we believe that we own approximately 7% of the self-storage square footage in the U.S. and that collectively the five largest self-storage owners in the U.S. own approximately 16%, with the remaining 84% owned by regional and local operators.
We generally own facilities in major markets. We believe that we have market share and concentration in major metropolitan centers, with approximately 70% of our 2020 same-store revenues generated in the 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (each, an “MSA”, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau) with the highest population levels. We believe this is a competitive advantage relative to other self-storage operators, which do not have our geographic concentration and market share in the major MSAs.
The high level of ownership fragmentation in the industry is partially attributable to the relative simplicity of managing a local self-storage facility, such that small-scale owners can operate self-storage facilities at a basic level of profitability without significant managerial or operational infrastructure. Our facilities compete with nearby self-storage facilities owned by other operators using marketing channels, including Internet advertising, signage, and banners and offering services similar to ours. As a result, competition is significant and affects the occupancy levels, rental rates, rental income and operating expenses of our facilities. However, we believe that the economies of scale inherent in this business result in our being able to operate self-storage facilities at a materially higher level of cash flow per square foot than other operators without our scale.
Recently, larger national operators (including ourselves) are offering to manage facilities owned by third parties on their platform for a fee, and Google is offering a more convenient platform for small operators to compete with larger operators in paid search bidding campaigns to drive web traffic and increase reservations. Depending upon how many smaller operators avail themselves of these management services and Google’s platform, these two developments may potentially diminish the competitive advantage we have versus smaller owner/operators.
Newly developed facilities compete with many of the facilities we own, negatively impacting our occupancies, rental rates, and rental growth, particularly as newly developed facilities fill up. The level of new construction varies in each market over time, depending upon many factors such as the cost and availability of land, construction costs, zoning limitations, and the availability of capital, as well as local demand and economic conditions. Currently, we are affected by newly developed facilities in markets such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York and Portland. We expect development of new self-storage facilities to continue to impact our results for the foreseeable future.
Technology
We believe technology enables revenue optimization and cost efficiencies. Over the past few years we have invested in technologies that we believe have enabled us to operate and compete more effectively.
Centralized information networks: Our centralized reporting and information network enables us to identify changing market conditions and operating trends as well as analyze customer data and, on an automated basis, quickly change each of our individual properties’ pricing and promotions, as well as to drive marketing spending such as the relative level of bidding for various paid search terms on paid search engines.
Convenient shopping experience: Customers can conveniently shop for available storage space, reviewing attributes such as facility location, size, amenities such as climate-control, as well as pricing, through the following marketing channels:
Our Desktop and Mobile Websites: The online marketing channel is a key source of customers. Approximately 76% of our move-ins in 2020 were sourced through our website and we believe that many of our other customers who reserved directly through our call center or arrived at a facility and moved in without a reservation, have reviewed our pricing and availability online through our websites. We seek to regularly update the structure, layout, and content of our website in order to enhance our placement in “unpaid” search in Google and related websites, to improve the efficiency of our bids in “paid” search campaigns, and to maximize users’ likelihood of reserving space on our website.
Our Call Center: Our call center is staffed by skilled sales specialists. Customers reach our call center by calling our advertised toll-free telephone numbers provided on search engines or our website. We believe giving customers the option to interact with a call center agent, despite the higher marginal cost relative to a reservation made on our website, enhances our ability to close sales with potential customers.
Our Properties: Customers can also shop at any one of our facilities. Property managers access the same information that is available on our website and to our call center agents, and can inform the customer of available space at that site or our other nearby storage facilities. Property managers are trained to maximize the conversion of such “walk in” shoppers into customers.
To further enhance the move-in experience, in 2020 we initiated our “eRental®” process whereby prospective tenants (including those who initially reserved a space) expedite the move-in process by executing a lease agreement from their smartphone or computer and then going directly to their space on the move-in date. Approximately half of customers elected this “eRental®” process during the fourth quarter of 2020.
In addition, in 2020 we have implemented technology solutions in the area of labor scheduling, an integrated customer smartphone application, automated and centralized property access systems, and website customer chat functions.
Growth and Investment Strategies
Our ongoing growth strategies consist of: (i) improving the operating performance of our existing self-storage facilities, (ii) acquiring and developing facilities, (iii) growing ancillary business activities including tenant reinsurance and third-party management services, and (iv) leveraging the growth of our investment in PSB and Shurgard. While our long-term strategy includes each of these elements, in the short run the level of growth in our asset base in any period is dependent upon the cost and availability of capital, as well as the relative attractiveness of available investment alternatives.
From time to time we explore expansion of our activities to other countries. Any such strategic expansion would most likely involve acquiring an interest in an existing operator’s platform. There can be no assurance that any such expansion will occur in the future or the timing thereof.
Improve the operating performance of existing facilities: We regularly update and enhance our strategies to increase the net cash flow of our existing self-storage facilities through maximizing revenues and controlling operating costs. We maximize revenues through striking the appropriate balance between occupancy and rates to new and existing tenants, by regularly adjusting (i) our promotional and other discounts, (ii) the rental rates we charge to new and existing customers, and (iii) our marketing spending and intensity. We inform these pricing and marketing decisions by observing their impact on web and call center traffic, reservations, move-ins, move-outs, tenant length of stay, and other indicators of response. The size and scope of our operations have enabled us to achieve high operating margins and a low level of administrative costs relative to revenues through the centralization of many functions, such as facility maintenance, employee compensation and benefits programs, revenue management, as well as the development and documentation of standardized operating procedures.
Acquire existing properties in the U.S.: We seek to capitalize on the fragmentation of the self-storage business through acquiring attractively priced, well-located existing self-storage facilities. We believe our presence in and knowledge of substantially all of the major markets in the U.S. enhances our ability to identify attractive acquisition opportunities. Data on the rental rates and occupancy levels of our existing facilities provide us an advantage in evaluating the potential of acquisition opportunities. Our aggressiveness in bidding for particular marketed facilities depends upon many factors including the potential for future growth, the quality of construction and location, the cash flow we expect from the facility when operated on our platform, how well the facility fits into our current geographic footprint, as well as our return on capital expectations.
Develop new self-storage facilities and expand existing facilities: The development of new self-storage locations and the expansion of existing facilities has been an important source of our growth. Our operating experience in major markets and experience in stabilizing new properties provides us advantages in developing new facilities. We plan to increase our development activity given attractive risk adjusted return profile with yields above those of acquisitions. However, our level of development is dependent upon many factors, including the cost and availability of land, the cost and availability of construction materials and labor, zoning and permitting limitations, our cost of capital, the cost of acquiring facilities relative to developing new facilities, as well as local demand and economic conditions.
Grow ancillary business activities: We pursue growth initiatives providing attractive insurance offerings for tenants who choose to protect their stored items against loss and desire to maximize their storage experience. As we grow our self-storage portfolio we have the opportunity to increase the growth profile of our tenant reinsurance business.
Our third party management business enables us to generate revenues through management fees, expand our presence, increase our economies of scale, promote our brand and enhance our ability to acquire additional facilities over the medium and long-term as a result of strategic relationships forged with third-party owners.
Participate in the growth of PS Business Parks, Inc.: We hold a 42% equity interest in PSB. Our investment in PSB provides diversification into another asset type. PSB seeks to grow its asset base in its existing markets as well as increase the cash flows from its owned portfolio. As of December 31, 2020, PSB owned and operated approximately 27.7 million rentable square feet of commercial space.
Participate in the growth of Shurgard: We hold a 35% interest in Shurgard. We believe Shurgard is the largest self-storage company in Western Europe. Customer awareness and availability of self-storage is significantly lower in Europe than in the U.S. However, with more awareness and product supply, we believe there is potential for increased demand for storage space in Europe. We believe Shurgard can capitalize on potential increased demand through the development of new facilities and acquiring existing facilities. From January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020, Shurgard acquired 17 facilities from third parties for approximately $187.7 million, and has opened six development properties at a total cost of approximately $66.9 million. At December 31, 2020, Shurgard had ten properties in their development pipeline.
Compliance with Government Regulations
We are subject to various laws, ordinances and regulations, including various federal, state and local regulations that apply generally to the ownership of real property and the operation of self-storage properties. These include various laws and government regulations concerning environmental matters, labor matters and employee safety and health matters. Further, our insurance activities are subject to state insurance laws and regulations as determined by the particular insurance commissioner for each state in accordance with certain federal regulations.
We are not aware of any government regulations that have resulted or that we expect will result in compliance costs that had or will have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings or competitive position. See “We have significant exposure to real estate risk.” and “We are subject to new and changing legislation and regulations, including the California’s Consumer Privacy Act” in Item 1A. “Risk Factors” for further information regarding our risks related to government regulations. In addition, during public health crises, such as the COVID Pandemic, or in response to natural disasters, such as wildfires in California in recent years, our properties and our tenants have been subject to emergency government regulations that have impacted our operations and our business. See “We are subject to risks from the COVID Pandemic and we may in the future be subject to risks from other public health crises” and “We have been and may in the future be adversely impacted by emergency regulations adopted in response to significant events, such as natural disasters or public health crises, that could adversely impact our operations.” in Item 1A. “Risk Factors”.
We are committed to a long-term environmental stewardship program that reduces emissions of hazardous materials into the environment and the remediation of identified existing environmental concerns, including
environmentally-friendly capital initiatives and building and operating properties with a high structural resilience and low obsolescence. We accrue environmental assessments and estimated remediation costs when it is probable that such efforts will be required and the related costs can be reasonably estimated. Our current practice is to conduct environmental investigations in connection with property acquisitions. Although there can be no assurance, we are not aware of any environmental contamination of any of our facilities, which individually or in the aggregate would be material to our overall business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
During a significant portion of the year ended December 31, 2020, the COVID Pandemic has resulted in restrictions on business activities in most sectors of the economy in virtually all markets we operate in, due to governmental “stay at home” orders, risk mitigation procedures, closure of businesses not considered to be “essential,” as well as other direct and indirect impacts, including a significant increase in unemployment in the U.S.
The impact of the COVID Pandemic on our business is described more fully in “Overview” and the various sections of our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations which follows.
Human Capital Resources
The Company’s key human capital management objectives are to attract, develop and retain the highest quality talent. We seek to earn the commitment of employees by making a strong commitment to them. While most join without experience in the self-storage industry, many find career success with us given our emphasis on training, development and promotion from within.
Doing the right thing and integrity are core values we live by at Public Storage and the cornerstone to our culture. Acting with the highest integrity is imperative to our success, our customer’s satisfaction and our employee’s engagement.
We have approximately 5,400 employees, including 4,700 customer facing roles (such as property level and call center personnel), 380 field management employees, and 320 employees in our corporate operations.
Diversity and Inclusion
At Public Storage, we are united under one common goal - creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all employees feel valued, included, and excited to be part of a best-in-class team. With over 5,400 team members from all different races, backgrounds, and life experiences, we celebrate inclusion and value the diversity each person brings to Public Storage. This commitment drives everything we do, from the people we hire, to the business decisions we make.
Public Storage hires based on character, skills, and experience without regard to age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. Adherence to this practice has resulted in a diverse and inclusive employee base that reflects the diversity of customers we serve. We maintain policies regarding diversity, equal opportunity, pay-for-performance, discrimination, harassment, and labor (e.g., child, forced, and compulsory). Our employee population is approximately 70% female and approximately 51% have self-identified as people of color; Black or African American (23%), Hispanic or Latino (18%), Asian (4%), of two or more races (4%), Native American (1%), and Pacific Islander (1%).
Diversity is an important factor in all levels of the organization. Our executive team is 25% female and 25% people of color and 38% of our leadership roles are held by women. In 2020, 54% of employees promoted to leadership roles were diverse. Additionally, by having a balanced mix of generations in the organization, we gain from the experiences each age group brings - our employees are 16% Boomer, 28% Gen X, 47% Gen Y and 9% Gen Z.
Some examples of key programs and initiatives that are focused to attract, develop and retain our diverse workforce include:
Compensation, Health and Wellness
Public Storage believes in aligning employee compensation with our short- and long-term performance goals and providing compensation and incentives needed to attract, motivate and retain employees who are crucial to our success. We tailor our compensation programs to each employee group to ensure competitiveness in the market and to drive employee engagement.
Public Storage is also committed to our employees and their overall health and well-being. We want to help them feel happy, healthy, socially connected, and purposeful. Our goal is to provide tools and resources to help empower our employees to explore what they need and to evaluate for themselves what makes sense in achieving a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
We offer benefits to virtually all our employees. Anyone working 20 hours or more is eligible to participate in our health benefit offerings which include medical, dental, vision, flexible and health savings accounts, discount and income protection plans. We also offer a 401(k) plan with matching employer contributions to help our employees prepare for retirement.
Our dedicated health and wellness website is designed to provide educational and motivational content that help our employees focus on their well-being. We also host individual and team contests to promote goal setting, action and monitoring.
Additionally, employee support programs are available with access to free counseling services through various channels (web, phone, in person), life planning tools and other discount programs for legal services, pet insurance, home and auto, and more.
The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID Pandemic brought varying challenges to each of our employee groups. We took a multipronged approach in providing resources, tools and added protocols that focused on employees and their families while still allowing us to support the customers we serve during these unprecedented times.
Our field operations and store protocols were quickly modified to ensure a safe workspace for our employees and our customers. We implemented a policy of allowing only one customer in office at a time, required mandatory face coverings, and installed Plexiglass protection. We also sought to reduce in person touchpoints with various initiatives, most notably our newly-launched “eRental®” program described above.
Additionally, we had a swift transition to work-from-home for our corporate and call center operations by utilizing new operating and call center technology platforms that were put in place prior to prepare for these types of situations.
We established the PS Cares Fund which was designed to support our employees that may be directly impacted by COVID-19. We provided additional incentive pay for property personnel and district managers, opened personal paid time off policies for full use and provided extended paid time to ensure employees had time off assistance when and if needed. Childcare assistance and online educational content was made available to help employees balance the need to work and care for children impacted by school closures. Additionally, mental well-being offerings were provided for those struggling during these unique times.
Training, Development and Recognition
We provide robust training programs for our new hires in our field and call center operations to help them quickly learn and operate in the self-storage business. We also offer ongoing training and development programs for
our workforce. We are able to accomplish this by utilizing an online platform that provides a one-stop shop for accessing training courses and relevant reference materials. Public Storage employees completed more than 367,000 formal training hours in 2020.
The online training and development platform also allows us to reinforce our culture of ongoing recognition by providing a means to show appreciation to others across all levels of the business by awarding employee recognition badges such as team player or appreciation badge. Over 54,000 badges were awarded in 2020.
Communication and Engagement
Given the geographically dispersed nature of our business, it is important for us to ensure that employees feel they are informed and included. We communicate through various channels such as monthly meetings or “touch bases”, frequent email communications and updates from corporate, company intranet postings, engagement surveys and monthly newsletters. Our monthly newsletter is an additional way to keep up with company information and each other. It contains a CEO message and provides company strategy and performance updates, employee achievements and promotions, health and wellness tips, and other pertinent information that helps keep us connected.
Employee engagement is instrumental in understanding the effectiveness of our strategies. We conduct various engagement surveys through the year to help us measure commitment, motivation and engagement, as well as gain employee feedback that helps us improve.
Seasonality
We experience minor seasonal fluctuations in the demand for self-storage space, with demand and rental rates generally higher in the summer months than in the winter months. We believe that these fluctuations result in part from increased moving activity during the summer months.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
In addition to the other information in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should consider the risks described below that we believe may be material to investors in evaluating the Company. This section contains forward-looking statements, and in considering these statements, you should refer to the qualifications and limitations on our forward-looking statements that are described in Item 1, “Business.”
Risks Related to Our Business
We have significant exposure to real estate risk.
Since our business consists primarily of acquiring, developing, and operating real estate, we are subject to risks related to the ownership and operation of real estate that could result in reduced revenues, increased expenses, increased capital expenditures, or increased borrowings, which could negatively impact our operating results, cash flow available for distribution or reinvestment, and our stock price:
Natural disasters or terrorist attacks could cause damage to our facilities, resulting in increased costs and reduced revenues. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes and floods, or terrorist attacks could cause significant damage to our facilities and require significant repair costs, and make facilities temporarily uninhabitable, thereby reducing our revenues. Damage and business interruption losses could exceed the aggregate limits of our insurance coverage. In addition, because we self-insure a portion of our risks, losses below a certain level may not be covered by insurance. See Note 13 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements for a description of the risks of losses that are not covered by third-party insurance contracts. We may not have sufficient insurance coverage for losses caused by a terrorist attack, or such insurance may not be maintained, available or cost-effective. In addition, significant natural disasters, terrorist attacks, threats of future terrorist attacks, or resulting wider armed conflicts could have negative impacts on self-storage demand and/or our revenues.
Consequences of climate change, including severe weather events, and the steps taken to prevent climate change, could result in increased capital expenditures, increased expenses, and reduced revenues: Direct and indirect impacts of climate change, such as increased destructive weather events, fires, reduced lifespans and population reduction, reduced natural habitats, water, food, arable land, and other resources, as well as resulting armed conflicts, could increase our costs or reduce demand for our self-storage facilities. Governmental, political, and societal pressure could (i) require costly changes to future newly developed facilities, or require retrofitting of our existing facilities, to reduce carbon emissions through multiple avenues including changes to insulation, space configuration, lighting, heating, and air conditioning, (ii) increase energy costs as a result of switching to less carbon-intensive, but more expensive, sources of energy to operate our facilities, and (iii) result in consumers reducing their individual carbon footprints by owning fewer durable material consumer goods, collectibles, and other such items requiring storage, resulting in a reduced demand for our self-storage space.
Operating costs, including property taxes, could increase. We could be subject to increases in insurance premiums, property or other taxes, repair and maintenance costs, payroll, utility costs, workers compensation, and other operating expenses due to various factors such as inflation, labor shortages, commodity and energy price increases, weather, increases to minimum wage rates, changes to governmental safety and real estate use limitations, as well as other governmental actions. Our property tax expense, which totaled approximately $297.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2020, generally depends upon the assessed value of our real estate facilities as determined by assessors and government agencies, and accordingly could be subject to substantial increases if such agencies changed their valuation approaches or opinions or if new laws are enacted, especially if new approaches are adopted or laws are enacted that result in increased property tax assessments in states or geographies where we have a high concentration of facilities. See also “We have exposure to increased property tax in California” below.
The acquisition of existing properties or self-storage operating companies is subject to risks that may adversely affect our growth and financial results. We have acquired self-storage facilities from third parties in the past, and we expect to continue to do so in the future. We face significant competition for suitable acquisition properties from other real estate investors. As a result, we may be unable to acquire additional properties we desire or the purchase price for desirable properties may be significantly increased. Failures or unexpected circumstances in integrating facilities that we acquire directly or via the acquisition of operating companies into our operations, or circumstances we did not detect or anticipate during due diligence, such as environmental matters, needed repairs or deferred maintenance, customer collection issues, assumed liabilities, turnover of critical personnel involved in acquired operating companies, or the effects of increased property tax following reassessment of a newly-acquired property, as well as the general risks of real estate investment and mergers and acquisitions, could jeopardize realization of the anticipated earnings from an acquisition.
Development of self-storage facilities can subject us to risks. At December 31, 2020, we had a pipeline of development projects totaling $561.4 million (subject to contingencies), and we expect to continue to seek additional development projects. There are significant risks involved in developing self-storage facilities, such as delays or cost increases due to changes in or failure to meet government or regulatory requirements, failure of revenue to meet our underwriting estimates, weather issues, unforeseen site conditions, or personnel problems. Self-storage space is generally not pre-leased, and rent-up of newly developed space can be delayed or ongoing cash flow yields can be reduced due to competition, reductions in storage demand, or other factors.
There is significant competition among self-storage operators and from other storage alternatives. Our self-storage facilities generate most of our revenue and earnings. Significant competition from self-storage operators, property developers, and other storage alternatives may adversely impact our ability to attract and retain customers and may negatively impact our ability to generate revenue. Competition in the local market areas in which many of our properties are located is significant and has affected our occupancy levels, rental rates, and operating expenses. There is also an increasing influx of capital from outside financing sources driving more money, development, and supply into the industry. Development of self-storage facilities has increased in recent years, which has intensified competition and will continue to do so as newly developed facilities are opened. Development of self-storage facilities by other operators could continue to increase, due to increases in availability of funds for investment or other reasons, and further intensify competition.
Demand for self-storage facilities may be affected by customer perceptions and factors outside of our control. Significantly lower logistics costs could introduce new competitors such as valet-style storage services and reduce the demand for traditional self-storage. Customer preferences and/or needs for self-storage could change, decline, or shift to other product types thereby impacting our business model and ability to grow and/or generate revenues. Shifts in population and demographics could cause the geographical distribution of our portfolio to be suboptimal and affect our ability to maintain occupancy and attract new customers. Security incidents could result in the perception that our properties are not safe. If our customers do not feel our properties are safe, they may select competitors for their self-storage needs, or if there is an industry perception of inadequate security customer use of self-storage could be negatively impacted.
Our newly developed and expanded facilities, and facilities that we manage for third party owners, may negatively impact the revenues of our existing facilities. We continue to develop new self-storage facilities and expand our existing self-storage facilities. In addition, we are seeking to increase the number of self-storage facilities that we manage for third party owners in exchange for a fee, many of which are in the process of stabilization and are in proximity to our existing stabilized self-storage facilities. In order to hasten the fill-up of these new facilities, we aggressively price such space during the fill-up period. While we believe that this aggressive pricing allows us to increase our market share relative to our competitors and increase the cash flows of these properties, such pricing and the added capacity may also negatively impact our existing stabilized self-storage facilities that are in proximity to these unstabilized facilities.
Many of our existing self-storage facilities may be at a competitive disadvantage to newly developed facilities. There is a significant level of development of new self-storage facilities, by us and other operators. These newly developed facilities are generally of high quality, with a more fresh and vibrant appearance, more amenities such as climate control, more attractive office configurations, newer elements, and a more imposing and attractive retail presence as compared to many of our existing stabilized self-storage facilities, some of which were built as much as 50 years ago. Such qualitative differentials may negatively impact our ability to compete with these facilities for new tenants and our existing tenants may move to newly developed facilities.
We may incur significant liabilities from environmental contamination or moisture infiltration. Existing or future laws impose or may impose liability on us to clean up environmental contamination on or around properties that we currently or previously owned or operated, even if we were not responsible for or aware of the environmental contamination or even if such environmental contamination occurred prior to our involvement with the property. We have conducted preliminary environmental assessments on most of our properties, which have not identified any material liabilities. These assessments, commonly referred to as “Phase 1 Environmental Assessments,” include an investigation (excluding soil or groundwater sampling or analysis) and a review of publicly available information regarding the site and other nearby properties.
We are also subject to potential liability relating to moisture infiltration, which can result in mold or other damage to our or our customers’ property, as well as potential health concerns. When we receive a complaint or otherwise become aware that an air quality concern exists, we implement corrective measures and seek to work proactively with our customers to resolve issues, subject to our contractual limitations on liability for such claims.
We are not aware of any environmental contamination or moisture infiltration related liabilities that could be material to our overall business, financial condition, or results of operation. However, we may not have detected all material liabilities, we could acquire properties with material undetected liabilities, or new conditions could arise or develop at our properties, any of which could result in a cash settlement or adversely affect our ability to sell, lease, operate, or encumber affected facilities.
Economic conditions can adversely affect our business, financial condition, growth and access to capital.
Economic downturns or adverse economic or industry conditions could adversely impact our financial results, growth, and access to capital.
Our revenues and operating cash flow can be negatively impacted by reductions in employment and population levels, household and disposable income, and other general economic factors that lead to a reduction in demand for rental space in each of the markets in which we operate.
Our ability to raise capital to fund our activities may be adversely affected by challenging market conditions. In periods when the capital and credit markets experience significant volatility, the amounts, sources, and cost of capital available to us may be adversely affected. If we were unable to raise capital at reasonable rates, prospective earnings growth through expanding our asset base could be limited.
We have exposure to European operations through our ownership in Shurgard.
We own approximately 35% of the common shares of Shurgard, and this investment has a $341.1 million book value and a $1.4 billion market value (based upon the closing trading price of Shurgard’s common stock) at December 31, 2020. We recognized $15.7 million in equity in earnings, and received $34.9 million in dividends, in 2020, with respect to Shurgard.
Shurgard, as an owner, operator, and developer of self-storage facilities, is subject to many of the same risks we are with respect to self-storage. However, through our investment in Shurgard, we are exposed to additional risks unique to the various European markets Shurgard operates in which may adversely impact our business and financial results, many of which are referred to in Shurgard’s public filings. These risks include the following:
Currency risks: Currency fluctuations can impact the fair value of our investment in Shurgard, our equity earnings, our ongoing dividends, and any other related repatriations of cash.
Legislative, tax, and regulatory risks: Shurgard is subject to a variety of local, national, and pan European laws and regulations related to permitting and land use, the environment, labor, and other areas, as well as income, property, sales, value added and employment tax laws. These laws can be difficult to apply or interpret and can vary in each country or locality, and are subject to unexpected changes in their form and application due to regional, national, or local political uncertainty and other factors. Such changes, or Shurgard’s failure to comply with these laws, could subject it to penalties or other sanctions, adverse changes in business processes, as well as potentially adverse income tax, property tax, or other tax burdens.
Impediments to capital repatriation could negatively impact the realization of our investment in Shurgard: Laws in Europe and the U.S. may create, impede, or increase our cost to repatriate distributions received from Shurgard or proceeds from the sale of Shurgard’s shares.
Risks of collective bargaining and intellectual property: Collective bargaining, which is prevalent in certain areas in Europe, could negatively impact Shurgard’s labor costs or operations. Many of Shurgard’s employees participate in various national unions.
Potential operating and individual country risks: Economic slowdowns or extraordinary political or social change in the countries in which it operates have posed, and could continue to pose, challenges or result in future reductions of Shurgard’s operating cash flows.
Liquidity of our ownership stake: We have no plans to liquidate our interest in Shurgard. However, while Shurgard is a publicly held entity, if we chose to, our ability to liquidate our shares in Shurgard in an efficient manner could be limited by the level of Shurgard’s public “float” relative to any ownership stake we sought to sell. Our existing relationship with our legacy joint venture partner may place further contractual limitations on our ability to sell all of the shares we own if we desired to do so.
Impediments of Shurgard’s public ownership structure: Shurgard’s strategic decisions, involving activities such as borrowing money, capital contributions, raising capital from third parties, as well as
selling or acquiring significant assets, are determined by its board of directors. As a result, Shurgard may be precluded from taking advantage of opportunities that we would find attractive but that we may not be able to pursue economically separately, or it could take actions that we do not agree with.
We have exposure to commercial property risk through our ownership in PSB.
We own approximately 42% of the common equity of PSB, and this investment has a $432.0 million book value and a $1.9 billion market value (based upon the closing trading price of PSB’s common stock) at December 31, 2020. We recognized $64.8 million in equity in earnings, and received $60.7 million in dividends, in 2020, with respect to PSB.
PSB, as an owner, operator, and developer of real estate, is subject to many of the same risks we are with respect to real estate. However, we may be exposed to other risks as a result of PSB’s ownership specifically of commercial facilities. These risks are set forth in PSB’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, under “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”
We are subject to risks from the COVID Pandemic and we may in the future be subject to risks from other public health crises.
Since being reported in December 2019, the COVID Pandemic has spread globally, including to every state in the United States, adversely affecting public health and economic activity. Our business is subject to risks from the COVID Pandemic, including, among others:
risk of illness or death of our employees or customers;
continuing negative impacts on the economic conditions in our markets which have reduced and we expect will continue to reduce the demand for self-storage;
risk that there could be an out-migration of population from certain high-cost major markets, if it is determined that the ability to “work from home,” which has become more prominent during the COVID Pandemic, could allow certain workers to live in less expensive localities, which could negatively impact the occupancies and revenues of our properties in such high-cost major markets;
continuing, new or reinstituted government restrictions that (i) limit or prevent use of our facilities, (ii) limit our ability to increase rent or otherwise limit the rent we can charge, (iii) limit our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants, or (iv) limit our ability to complete development and redevelopment projects;
risk that even after the initial restrictions due to the COVID Pandemic ease, they could be reinstituted in case of future waves of infection or if additional pandemics occur;
risk that we could experience a change in the move-out patterns of our long-term customers due to economic uncertainty and increases in unemployment as a result of the COVID Pandemic. This could lead to lower occupancies and rent “roll down” as long-term customers are replaced with new customers at lower rates; and
risk of negative impacts on the cost and availability of debt and equity capital as a result of the COVID Pandemic, which could have a material impact upon our capital and growth plans.
We believe that the degree to which the COVID Pandemic adversely impacts our business, operating results, cash flows and/or financial condition will be driven primarily by the duration, spread and severity of the pandemic itself, the speed and effectiveness of vaccine and treatment developments, as well as the duration of indirect economic impacts such as recession, dislocation in capital markets, and job loss, as well as potential longer term changes in
consumer behavior, all of which are uncertain and difficult to predict. As a result, we are not able at this time to estimate the effect of these factors on our business, but the adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be material. Future pandemics or public health crises could have similar impacts.
We have been and may in the future be adversely impacted by emergency regulations adopted in response to significant events, such as natural disasters or public health crises, that could adversely impact our operations.
In response to significant events, local, state and federal governments have and may in the future adopt regulations that could impact our operations. For example, in response to wildfires in 2018 and 2019, the State of California and some localities in California adopted temporary regulations that imposed certain limits on the rents we could charge at certain of our facilities and the extent to we could increase rents to existing tenants. As noted above, in response to the COVID Pandemic, certain localities adopted restrictions on the use of certain of our facilities, limited our ability to increase rents, limited our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants, and limited our ability to complete development and redevelopment projects. Similar restrictions could be imposed in the future in response to significant events and these restrictions could adversely impact our operations.
Our marketing and pricing strategies may fail to be effective or may be constrained by factors outside of our control.
Marketing initiatives, including our increasing dependence on Google to source customers, may fail to be effective and could negatively impact financial performance. Approximately 64% of our new storage customers in 2020 were sourced directly or indirectly through “unpaid” search and “paid” search campaigns on Google. We believe that the vast majority of customers searching for self-storage use Google at some stage in their shopping experience. Google is providing tools to allow smaller and less sophisticated operators to bid for search terms, increasing competition for self-storage search terms. The predominance of Google in the shopping experience, as well as Google’s enabling of additional competitors to bid for placements in self-storage search terms, may reduce the number of new customers that we can procure, and/or increase our costs to obtain new customers.
In addition, the inability to utilize our pricing methodology due to regulatory or market constraints could also significantly impact our financial results.
We are exposed to ongoing litigation and other legal and regulatory actions, which may divert management’s time and attention, require us to pay damages and expenses or restrict the operation of our business.
We have over 5,400 employees, more than 1.6 million customers, and we conduct business at facilities with 175 million net rentable square feet of storage space. As a result, we are subject to the risk of legal claims and proceedings (including class actions) and regulatory enforcement actions in the ordinary course of our business and otherwise, and we could incur significant liabilities and substantial legal fees as a result of these actions. Resolution of these claims and actions may divert time and attention by our management could involve payment of damages or expenses by us, all of which may be significant, and could damage our reputation and our brand. In addition, any such resolution could involve our agreement to terms that restrict the operation of our business. The results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. We cannot guarantee losses incurred in connection with any current or future legal or regulatory proceedings or actions will not exceed any provisions we may have set aside in respect of such proceedings or actions or will not exceed any available insurance coverage. The impact of any such legal claims, proceedings, and regulatory enforcement actions and could negatively impact our operating results, cash flow available for distribution or reinvestment, and/or the price of our common shares.
In addition, through exercising their authority to regulate our activities, governmental agencies can otherwise negatively impact our business by increasing costs or decreasing revenues.
Our failure to modernize and adopt advancements in information technology may hinder or prevent us from achieving strategic objectives.
Our inability to adapt and deliver new capabilities in time with strategic requirements may cause the organization to miss market competitive timing, first mover position, or to suffer material loss due to failed technology choices or implementation.
We are heavily dependent on computer systems, telecommunications and the Internet to process transactions, make payments, summarize results and manage our business. The failure or disruption of our computer and communications systems could significantly harm our business.
We are heavily dependent upon automated information technology and Internet commerce, with more than half of our new customers coming from the telephone or over the Internet. We centrally manage significant components of our operations with our computer systems, including our financial information, and we also rely extensively on third-party vendors to retain data, process transactions and provide other systems services. These systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, hackers, computer worms, viruses and other destructive or disruptive security breaches and catastrophic events. Such incidents could also result in significant costs to repair or replace such networks or information systems, as well as actual monetary losses in case of a breach that resulted in fraudulent payments or other cash transactions. As a result, our operations could be severely impacted by a natural disaster, terrorist attack, attack by hackers, acts of vandalism, data theft, misplaced or lost data, programming or human error, or other circumstance that results in a significant outage of our systems or those of our third party providers, despite our use of back up and redundancy measures.
If our confidential information is compromised or corrupted, including as a result of a cybersecurity breach, our reputation and business relationships could be damaged, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the ordinary course of our business we acquire and store sensitive data, including personally identifiable information of our prospective and current customers and our employees. The secure processing and maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Although we believe we have taken commercially reasonable steps to protect the security of our confidential information, information security risks have generally increased in recent years due to the rise in new technologies and the increased sophistication and activities of perpetrators of cyberattacks. Despite our security measures, we have experienced security breaches due to cyberattacks and additional breaches could occur in the future. In these cases, our information technology and infrastructure could be vulnerable and our or our customers’ or employees’ confidential information could be compromised or misappropriated. Any such breach could result in serious and harmful consequences for us or our tenants.
Our confidential information may also be compromised due to programming or human error or malfeasance. We must continually evaluate and adapt our systems and processes to address the evolving threat landscape, and therefore there is no guarantee that they will be adequate to safeguard against all data security breaches or misuses of data. In addition, as the regulatory environment related to information security, data collection and use, and privacy becomes increasingly rigorous, with new and changing requirements applicable to our business from multiple regulatory agencies at the local, state, federal, or international level, compliance with those requirement could also result in additional costs, or we could fail to comply with those requirements due to various reasons such as not being aware of them.
Any such access, disclosure or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, regulatory penalties, disruption to our operations and the services we provide to customers or damage our reputation, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations, reputation and competitive position. In addition, our customers could lose confidence in our ability to protect their personal information, which could cause them to discontinue leasing our self-storage facilities. Such events could lead to lost future revenues and adversely affect our results of operations and could result in remedial and other costs, fines or lawsuits, which could be in excess of any available insurance that we have procured.
Ineffective succession planning for our CEO and executive management, as well as for our other key employees, may impact the execution of our strategic plan.
We may not effectively or appropriately identify ready-now succession candidates for CEO and executive management team which may negatively impact our ability to meet key strategic goals. Failure to implement succession plan for other key employees may leave us vulnerable to retirements and turnover.
We may fail to adequately protect our trademarks.
Our trademark and trade dress could be deemed generic and indistinct and lose protection. We could lose rights to our other intellectual property and trade secrets. Competitor use of our trademarks and trade names could lead to likelihood of confusion, tarnishment of our brand, and loss of legal protection for our marks.
Risks Related to Our Ownership, Organization and Structure
The Hughes Family could significantly influence us and take actions adverse to other shareholders.
At December 31, 2020, B. Wayne Hughes, our former Chairman and his family, which includes his daughter, Tamara Hughes Gustavson, a current member of our Board of Trustees (our “Board”), and his son, B. Wayne Hughes, Jr., a former member of the Board who retired effective December 31, 2020, (collectively, the “Hughes Family”), owned approximately 13.0% of our aggregate outstanding common shares. Our declaration of trust permits the Hughes Family to own up to 35.66% of our outstanding common shares while it generally restricts the ownership by other persons and entities to 3% of our outstanding common shares unless our Board grants an ownership waiver, as has occurred in certain cases for large mutual fund companies. Consequently, the Hughes Family may significantly influence matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders, including electing trustees, amending our organizational documents, dissolving and approving other extraordinary transactions, such as a takeover attempt, which may result in an outcome that may not be favorable to other shareholders.
Takeover attempts or changes in control could be thwarted, even if beneficial to shareholders.
In certain circumstances, shareholders might desire a change of control or acquisition of us, in order to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price of our shares or for other reasons. However, the following could prevent, deter, or delay such a transaction:
Provisions of Maryland law may impose limitations that may make it more difficult for a third party to negotiate or effect a business combination transaction or control share acquisition with Public Storage. Currently, the Board has opted not to subject the Company to these provisions of Maryland law, but it could choose to do so in the future without shareholder approval.
To protect against the loss of our REIT status due to concentration of ownership levels, our declaration of trust generally limits the ability of a person, other than the Hughes Family or “designated investment entities” (each as defined in our declaration of trust), to own, actually or constructively, more than 3% of our outstanding common shares or 9.9% of the outstanding shares of any class or series of preferred or equity shares. Our Board may grant, and has previously granted, a specific exemption. These limits could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company not approved by our Board.
Similarly, current provisions of our declaration of trust and powers of our Board could have the same effect, including (1) limitations on removal of trustees, (2) restrictions on the acquisition of our shares of beneficial interest, (3) the power to issue additional common shares, preferred shares or equity shares on terms approved by the Board without obtaining shareholder approval, (4) the advance notice provisions of our bylaws and (5) the Board’s ability under Maryland law, without obtaining shareholder approval, to implement takeover defenses that we may not yet have and to
take, or refrain from taking, other actions that could have the effect of delaying, deterring or preventing a transaction or a change in control.
Holders of our preferred shares have dividend, liquidation and other rights that are senior to the rights of the holders of shares of our common stock.
Holders of our preferred shares are entitled to cumulative dividends before any dividends may be declared or set aside on our common stock. Upon liquidation, holders of our preferred shares will receive a liquidation preference of $25,000 per share (or $25.00 per depositary share) plus any accrued and unpaid distributions before any payment is made to the common shareholders. These preferences may limit the amount received by our common shareholders either from ongoing distributions or upon liquidation. In addition, our preferred shareholders have the right to elect two additional directors to our Board whenever dividends are in arrears in an aggregate amount equivalent to six or more quarterly dividends, whether or not consecutive.
Preferred Shareholders are subject to certain risks.
Holders of our preferred shares have preference rights over our common shareholders with respect to liquidation and distributions, which give them some assurance of continued payment of their stated dividend rate, and receipt of their principal upon liquidation of the Company or redemption of their securities. However, holders of our Preferred Shares should consider the following risks:
The Company has in the past, and could in the future, issue or assume additional debt. Preferred shareholders would be subordinated to the interest and principal payments of such debt, which would increase the risk that there would not be sufficient funds to pay distributions or liquidation amounts to the preferred shareholders.
The Company has in the past, and could in the future, issue additional preferred shares that, while pari passu to the existing preferred shares, increases the risk that there would not be sufficient funds to pay distributions to the preferred shareholders.
While the Company has no plans to do so, if the Company were to lose its REIT status or no longer elect REIT status, it would no longer be required to distribute its taxable income to maintain REIT status. If, in such a circumstance, the Company ceased paying dividends, unpaid distributions to the preferred shareholders would continue to accumulate. The preferred shareholders would have the ability to elect two additional members to serve on our Board of Trustees until the arrearage was cured. The preferred shareholders would not receive any compensation (such as interest) for the delay in the receipt of distributions, and it is possible that the arrearage could accumulate indefinitely.
Risks Related to Government Regulations and Taxation
We would incur adverse tax consequences if we failed to qualify as a REIT, and we would have to pay substantial U.S. federal corporate income taxes.
REITs are subject to a range of complex organizational and operational requirements. A qualifying REIT does not generally incur U.S. federal corporate income tax on its “REIT taxable income” (generally, taxable income subject to specified adjustments, including a deduction for dividends paid and excluding net capital gain) that it distributes to its shareholders. Our REIT status is also dependent upon the ongoing REIT qualification of PSB as a result of our substantial ownership interest in it. We believe we have qualified as a REIT and we intend to continue to maintain our REIT status.
However, there can be no assurance that we qualify or will continue to qualify as a REIT, because of the highly technical nature of the REIT rules, the ongoing importance of factual determinations, the possibility of
unidentified issues in prior periods, or changes in our circumstances, as well as share ownership limits in our articles of incorporation that do not necessarily ensure that our shareholder base is sufficiently diverse for us to qualify as a REIT. For any year we fail to qualify as a REIT, unless certain relief provisions apply (the granting of such relief could nonetheless result in significant excise or penalty taxes), we would not be allowed a deduction for dividends paid, we would be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our taxable income, and generally we would not be allowed to elect REIT status until the fifth year after such a disqualification. Any taxes, interest, and penalties incurred would reduce our cash available for distributions to shareholders and could negatively affect our stock price. However, for years in which we failed to qualify as a REIT, we would not be subject to REIT rules that require us to distribute substantially all of our taxable income to our shareholders.
Changes in tax laws could negatively impact us.
The United States Treasury Department and Congress frequently review federal income tax legislation, regulations and other guidance. We cannot predict whether, when, or to what extent new federal tax laws, regulations, interpretations or rulings will be adopted. Any legislative action may prospectively or retroactively modify our tax treatment and, therefore, may adversely affect taxation of us or our shareholders.
Changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law on December 22, 2017, limit our ability to deduct compensation in excess of $1 million paid to certain senior executives. This could require us to increase distributions to our shareholders in the future in order to avoid paying tax and to maintain our REIT status.
We may pay some taxes, reducing cash available for shareholders.
Even if we qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal corporate income tax purposes, we may be subject to some federal, foreign, state and local taxes on our income and property. Since January 1, 2001, certain consolidated corporate subsidiaries of the Company have elected to be treated as taxable REIT subsidiaries (“TRSs”) for U.S. federal corporate income tax purposes, and are taxable as regular corporations and subject to certain limitations on intercompany transactions. If tax authorities determine that amounts paid by our TRSs to us are not reasonable compared to similar arrangements among unrelated parties, we could be subject to a 100% penalty tax on the excess payments, and ongoing intercompany arrangements could have to change, resulting in higher ongoing tax payments. To the extent the Company is required to pay federal, foreign, state or local taxes or federal penalty taxes due to existing laws or changes thereto, we will have less cash available for distribution to shareholders.
In addition, certain local and state governments have imposed taxes on self-storage rent. While in most cases those taxes are paid by our customers, they increase the cost of self-storage rental to our customers and can negatively impact our revenues. Other local and state governments may impose self-storage rent taxes in the future.
We have exposure to increased property tax in California.
Approximately $583 million of our 2020 net operating income is from our properties in California, and we incurred approximately $44 million in related property tax expense. Due to the impact of Proposition 13, which generally limits increases in assessed values to 2% per year, the assessed value and resulting property tax we pay is less than it would be if the properties were assessed at current values. From time to time, proposals have been made to reduce the beneficial impact of Proposition 13, most recently in the November 2020 ballot. While this ballot initiative failed, there can be no assurance that future initiatives or other legislative actions will not eliminate or reduce the benefit of Proposition 13 with respect to our properties. If the beneficial effect of Proposition 13 were ended for our properties, our property tax expense could increase substantially, adversely affecting our cash flow from operations and net income.
We are subject new and changing legislation and regulations, including the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).
We are subject to new and changing legislation or regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and legislation regarding property taxes, income taxes, REIT status, labor and employment, privacy and, lien
sales, at the city, county, state, and federal level, which could materially impact our business and operations. Failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and policies may subject us to increased litigation and regulatory actions and negatively affect our business and operations or reputation.
On November 3, 2020, Californians passed a ballot measure that creates the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). The CPRA amends and expands the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect on January 1, 2020. The CPRA, which goes into effect on January 1, 2023, provides new rights and amends existing rights found in the CCPA. It also creates a new privacy enforcement authority, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CalPPA”). The CPRA grants the Attorney General and the CalPPA the authority to issue regulations on a wide range of topics. It therefore remains unclear what, if any, modifications will be made to the CPRA or how it will be interpreted. While we believe we have developed processes to comply with current privacy requirements, a regulatory agency may not agree with certain of our implementation decisions, which could subject us to litigation, regulatory actions or changes to our business practices that could increase costs or reduce revenues. Other states have also considered or are considering privacy laws similar to those passed in California. Similar laws may be implemented in other jurisdictions in which we do business and in ways that may be more restrictive than those in California, increasing the cost of compliance, as well as the risk of noncompliance, on our business.
Our tenant reinsurance business is subject to governmental regulation which could reduce our profitability or limit our growth.
We hold Limited Lines Self-Service Storage Insurance Agent licenses from a number of individual state departments of insurance and are subject to state governmental regulation and supervision. Our continued ability to maintain these Limited Lines Self-Service Storage Insurance Agent licenses in the jurisdictions in which we are licensed depends on our compliance with related rules and regulations. The regulatory authorities in each jurisdiction generally have broad discretion to grant, renew and revoke licenses and approvals, to promulgate, interpret, and implement regulations, and to evaluate compliance with regulations through periodic examinations, audits and investigations of the affairs of insurance agents. As a result of regulatory or private action in any jurisdiction, we may be temporarily or permanently suspended from continuing some or all of our reinsurance activities, or otherwise fined or penalized or suffer an adverse judgment, which could reduce our net income.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
ITEM 1B.Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
ITEM 2.Properties
At December 31, 2020, we had controlling ownership interests in 2,548 self-storage facilities located in 38 states within the U.S.:
At December 31, 2020
Number of Storage Facilities
Net Rentable Square Feet (in thousands)
California
Southern
18,661
Northern
11,271
Texas
24,115
Florida
21,006
Illinois
8,361
Georgia
7,820
Washington
7,042
North Carolina
6,833
Virginia
6,455
Colorado
5,739
New York
4,817
Minnesota
4,721
Maryland
3,878
New Jersey
3,863
Ohio
3,692
South Carolina
3,668
Michigan
3,496
Arizona
3,311
Missouri
2,752
Indiana
2,570
Pennsylvania
2,415
Tennessee
2,363
Oregon
2,127
Massachusetts
1,976
Nevada
1,915
Oklahoma
1,644
Kansas
1,268
Other states (12 states)
7,272
Total (a)
2,548
175,051
(a)See Schedule III: Real Estate and Accumulated Depreciation in the Company’s 2020 financials, for a summary of land, building, accumulated depreciation, square footage, and number of properties by market.
At December 31, 2020, 27 of our facilities with a net book value of $102 million were encumbered by an aggregate of $25 million in mortgage notes payable.
The configuration of self-storage facilities has evolved over time. The oldest facilities are comprised generally of multiple single-story buildings, and have on average approximately 500 primarily “drive up” spaces per facility, and a small rental office. The most prevalent recently constructed facilities have higher density footprints with large, multi-story buildings with climate control and 1,000 or more self-storage spaces, a more imposing and visible retail presence, and a prominent and large rental office designed to appeal to customers as an attractive and retail-focused “store.” Our self-storage portfolio includes facilities with characteristics of the oldest facilities, characteristics of the most recently constructed facilities, and those with characteristics of both older and recently
constructed facilities. Most spaces have between 25 and 400 square feet and an interior height of approximately eight to 12 feet.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
ITEM 3.Legal Proceedings
For a description of the Company’s legal proceedings, see “Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies” to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
ITEM 4.Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
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PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
ITEM 5.Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our Common Shares of beneficial interest (the “Common Shares”) (NYSE: PSA) have been listed on the NYSE since October 19, 1984. As of February 19, 2021, there were approximately 11,158 holders of record of our Common Shares.
Our Board has authorized management to repurchase up to 35,000,000 of our common shares on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. From the inception of the repurchase program through February 24, 2021, we have repurchased a total of 23,721,916 common shares (all purchased prior to 2010) at an aggregate cost of approximately $679.1 million. Our common share repurchase program does not have an expiration date and there are 11,278,084 common shares that may yet be repurchased under our repurchase program as of December 31, 2020. We have no current plans to repurchase shares; however, future levels of common share repurchases will be dependent upon our available capital, investment alternatives, and the trading price of our common shares.
Refer to Item 12. “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters” for information about our equity compensation plans.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6.Selected Financial Data
Not applicable

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and notes thereto.
Critical Accounting Policies
Our MD&A discusses our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), and are affected by our judgments, assumptions and estimates. The notes to our December 31, 2020 financial statements, primarily Note 2, summarize our significant accounting policies.
We believe the following are our critical accounting policies, because they have a material impact on the portrayal of our financial condition and results, and they require us to make judgments and estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain.
Income Tax Expense: We have elected to be treated as a REIT, as defined in the Code. For each taxable year in which we qualify for taxation as a REIT, we will not be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our “REIT taxable income” (generally, taxable income subject to specified adjustments, including a deduction for dividends paid and excluding our net capital gain) that is distributed to our shareholders. We believe we have met these REIT requirements for all periods presented herein. Accordingly, we have recorded no U.S. federal corporate income tax expense related to our REIT taxable income.
Our evaluation that we have met the REIT requirements could be incorrect, because compliance with the tax rules requires factual determinations, and circumstances we have not identified could result in noncompliance with the tax requirements in current or prior years. For any taxable year that we fail to qualify as a REIT and for which applicable statutory relief provisions did not apply, we would be taxed at the regular corporate rates on all of our taxable income for at least that year and the ensuing four years, we could be subject to penalties and interest, and our net income would be materially different from the amounts estimated in our financial statements.
In addition, certain of our consolidated corporate subsidiaries have elected to be treated as TRSs for U.S. federal corporate income tax purposes, which are taxable as regular corporations and subject to certain limitations on intercompany transactions. If tax authorities determine that amounts paid by our TRSs to us are not reasonable compared to similar arrangements among unrelated parties, we could be subject to a 100% penalty tax on the excess payments. Such a penalty tax could have a material adverse impact on our net income.
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets: The analysis of impairment of our long-lived assets involves identification of indicators of impairment, projections of future operating cash flows, and estimates of fair values, all of which require significant judgment and subjectivity. Others could come to materially different conclusions. In addition, we may not have identified all current facts and circumstances that may affect impairment. Any unidentified impairment loss, or change in conclusions, could have a material adverse impact on our net income.
Accrual for Uncertain and Contingent Liabilities: We accrue for certain contingent and other liabilities that have significant uncertain elements, such as property taxes, workers compensation claims, tenant reinsurance claims, as well as other legal claims and disputes involving customers, employees, governmental agencies and other third parties. We estimate such liabilities based upon many factors such as assumptions of past and future trends and our evaluation of likely outcomes. However, the estimates of known liabilities could be incorrect or we may not be aware of all such liabilities, in which case our accrued liabilities and net income could be misstated.
Allocating Purchase Price for Acquired Real Estate Facilities: We estimate the fair values of land and buildings for purposes of allocating the aggregate purchase price of acquired properties. The related estimation processes involve significant judgment. We estimate the fair value of acquired buildings by determining the current cost to build new purpose-built self-storage facilities in the same location, and adjusting those costs for the actual age, quality, condition, amenities, and configuration of the buildings acquired. We estimate the fair value of acquired land by considering the most directly comparable recently transacted land sales (“Land Comps”) and adjusting the transacted values for differentials to the acquired land such as location quality, parcel size, and date of sale, in order to derive the estimated value of the underlying acquired land. These adjustments to the Land Comps require significant judgment, particularly when there is a low volume of Land Comps or the available Land Comps lack similarity to the acquired property in proximity, date of sale, or location quality. Others could come to materially different conclusions as to the estimated fair values, which would result in different depreciation and amortization expense, gains and losses on sale of real estate assets, as well as the level of land and buildings on our balance sheet.
Overview
During a significant portion of 2020, the COVID Pandemic has resulted in cessation, severe curtailment, or impairment of business activities in most sectors of the economy in virtually all markets we operate in, due to governmental “stay at home” orders, risk mitigation procedures, closure of businesses not considered to be “essential,” as well as other direct and indirect impacts, including a rapid and dramatic increase in unemployment in the U.S. While in certain markets, initial government restrictions were eased in response to reductions in the rate of new infections, there have been increases in the rate of infection in certain markets from time to time and re-imposition of certain restrictions. These restrictions as well as public concerns about the COVID Pandemic continue to have an ongoing negative impact the economy, with unemployment continuing to be at high levels.
Our self-storage facilities have been classified as “essential” businesses under all applicable business closure orders and thus remained open to all customer activity. We consider the safety of our employees and customers as our first priority, and have accordingly taken significant steps to ensure safety while keeping our services available to the public. These steps include initiating our touchless eRental® leasing platform, touchless mobile app allowing customer access to our properties, enforcing social distancing requirements in our property offices and grounds, and providing protective equipment, including face coverings, gloves, and plastic barriers.
Our corporate offices as well as our call centers migrated to a “work from home” environment during the COVID Pandemic. We expect our corporate employees to return to the corporate office assuming the risk of the COVID Pandemic continues to recede. However, we expect that our call centers will remain in a “work from home”
environment due to certain favorable aspects of a distributed call center team. We believe these changes have not resulted in any significant negative impacts to our operations or decision making.
It is possible that stricter government restrictions, including stay at home orders, could be instituted or reinstituted in response to increases in infections, the aggregate effect of the COVID Pandemic and seasonal influenza infections, or if additional pandemics occur. We cannot estimate the extent of the COVID Pandemic’s future negative impacts.
The negative impacts of the COVID Pandemic are described more fully below, as well as throughout our MD&A which follows.
Our self-storage operations generate most of our net income. Our earnings growth is most impacted by the level of organic growth in our Same Store Facilities’ revenues. Accordingly, a significant portion of management’s time is devoted to maximizing cash flows from our existing self-storage facilities.
During the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, revenues generated by our Same Store Facilities decreased by 1.0% and increased by 1.5%, respectively, as compared to the previous year. Revenue growth in each year was impacted by increased competition from newly developed facilities. The decrease in revenue in the year ended December 31, 2020 included the negative impact caused by the COVID Pandemic including restrictions on rate increases to tenants imposed by local government due to “States of Emergency.” Our trends in revenue have improved in the last half of 2020, with revenues from our Same Store Facilities increasing 0.8% during the three months ended December 31, 2020 as compared to the three months ended December 31, 2019. At December 31, 2020, as compared to December 31, 2019, occupancies for our Same Store Facilities was 2.7% higher, while the contract rent per occupied foot was essentially flat, suggesting continued revenue growth into early 2021.
See “Self-storage Operations - Same Store Operations” for further information with respect to our same-store operations, including potential downside risks to our expectations.
In addition to managing our existing facilities for organic growth, we have grown and plan to continue to grow through the acquisition and development of new facilities and expanding our existing self-storage facilities. In the three years ended December 31, 2020, we acquired a total of 131 facilities with 9.9 million net rentable square feet from third parties for approximately $1.4 billion, and we opened newly developed and expanded self-storage space for a total cost of $866.1 million, adding approximately 7.9 million net rentable square feet.
In order to enhance the competitive position of certain of our facilities relative to local competitors (including newly developed “fifth generation” facilities), we have embarked on a multi-year program to rebrand our properties, in order to develop more pronounced, attractive, and clearly identifiable color schemes and signage, as well as to upgrade the configuration and layout of the offices and other customer zones to improve the customer experience. The timing and scope of the program will evolve as the work is executed and we evaluate its impact. The cost of this program is included in “capital expenditures to maintain our real estate facilities” on our statements of cash flow, and the program is discussed more fully in “Liquidity and Capital Resources - Capital Expenditure Requirements” below.
See “Liquidity and Capital Resources” for further information regarding our capital requirements and anticipated sources of capital to fund such requirements.
Results of Operations
Operating results for 2020 and 2019
In 2020, net income allocable to our common shareholders was $1,098.3 million or $6.29 per diluted common share, compared to $1,272.8 million or $7.29 per diluted common share in 2019 representing a decrease of $174.4 million or $1.00 per diluted common share. The decrease is due primarily to (i) a $105.8 million decrease due to the impact of foreign currency exchange gains and losses associated with our Euro denominated debt, (ii) a $40.3 million increase in depreciation and amortization expense, (iii) a $21.1 million increase in general and administrative expense, (iv) a $15.6 million decrease due to the impact of allocations to preferred shareholders with respect to redemption of preferred shares, and (v) a $8.0 million decrease in self-storage net operating income.
The $8.0 million decrease in self-storage net operating income is a result of a $41.7 million decrease in our Same Store Facilities (as defined below), offset partially by a $33.7 million increase in our non-Same Store Facilities (as defined below). Revenues for the Same Store Facilities decreased 1.0% or $23.7 million in 2020 as compared to 2019, due primarily to reduced late charges and administrative fees. Cost of operations for the Same Store Facilities increased by 2.7% or $18.1 million in 2020 as compared to 2019, due primarily to a 22.5% ($11.0 million) increase in marketing expenses, a 3.1% ($7.4 million) increase in property tax expense, and a 2.5% ($3.1 million) increase in on-site property manager payroll expense. The increase in net operating income of $33.7 million for the non-Same Store Facilities is due primarily to the impact of facilities acquired in 2020 and 2019 and the fill-up of recently developed and expanded facilities.
Operating results for 2019 and 2018
In 2019, net income allocable to our common shareholders was $1,272.8 million or $7.29 per diluted common share, compared to $1,488.9 million or $8.54 per diluted common share in 2018 representing a decrease of $216.1 million or $1.25 per diluted common share. The decrease is due primarily to (i) $183.1 million in aggregate gains due to Shurgard’s initial public offering and the sale of our facility in West London to Shurgard in October 2018, (ii) our $37.7 million equity share of gains recorded by PS Business Parks during 2018, (iii) a $10.3 million decrease due to the impact of foreign currency exchange gains associated with our euro denominated debt and (iv) a $32.7 million allocation to our preferred shareholders associated with our preferred share redemption activities in 2019. These impacts were offset partially by a $34.3 million increase in self-storage net operating income (described below) and a reduction in general and administrative expense attributable to $30.7 million in incremental share-based compensation expense in 2018 for the planned retirement of our former CEO and CFO.
The $34.3 million increase in self-storage net operating income is a result of a $9.9 million increase in our Same Store Facilities and $24.4 million increase in our non-Same Store Facilities. Revenues for the Same Store Facilities increased 1.5% or $36.7 million in 2019 as compared to 2018, due primarily to higher realized annual rent per occupied square foot. Cost of operations for the Same Store Facilities increased by 4.2% or $26.9 million in 2019 as compared to 2018, due primarily to a 47.1% ($15.7 million) increase in marketing expenses and increased property taxes. The increase in net operating income of $24.4 million for the non-Same Store Facilities is due primarily to the impact of facilities acquired in 2019 and 2018 and the fill-up of recently developed and expanded facilities.
Funds from Operations and Core Funds from Operations
Funds from Operations (“FFO”) and FFO per share are non-GAAP measures defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and are considered helpful measures of REIT performance by REITs and many REIT analysts. FFO represents net income before depreciation and amortization, which is excluded because it is based upon historical costs and assumes that building values diminish ratably over time, while we believe that real estate values fluctuate due to market conditions. FFO also excludes gains or losses on sale of real estate assets and real estate impairment charges, which are also based upon historical costs and are impacted by historical depreciation. FFO and FFO per share are not a substitute for net income or earnings per share. FFO is not a substitute for net cash flow in evaluating our liquidity or ability to pay dividends, because it excludes investing and financing
activities presented on our statements of cash flows. In addition, other REITs may compute these measures differently, so comparisons among REITs may not be helpful.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, FFO was $9.75 per diluted common share, as compared to $10.58 and $10.45 per diluted common share for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively, representing a decrease in 2020 of 7.8%, or $0.83 per diluted common share, as compared to 2019. The following tables reconcile diluted earnings per share to FFO per share and set forth the computation of FFO per share:
Year Ended December 31,
(Amounts in thousands, except per share data)
Reconciliation of Diluted Earnings per Share to
FFO per Share:
Diluted Earnings per Share
$
6.29
$
7.29
$
8.54
Eliminate amounts per share excluded from FFO:
Depreciation and amortization
3.53
3.32
3.21
Gains on sale of real estate investments and
Shurgard IPO, including our equity share
from investments
(0.07)
(0.03)
(1.30)
FFO per share
$
9.75
$
10.58
$
10.45
Computation of FFO per Share:
Net income allocable to common shareholders
$
1,098,335
$
1,272,767
$
1,488,900
Eliminate items excluded from FFO:
Depreciation and amortization
549,975
511,413
483,646
Depreciation from unconsolidated
real estate investments
70,681
71,725
79,868
Depreciation allocated to noncontrolling
interests and restricted share unitholders
(3,850)
(4,208)
(3,646)
Gains on sale of real estate investments and
Shurgard IPO, including our equity share
from investments and other
(12,791)
(5,896)
(227,332)
FFO allocable to common shares
$
1,702,350
$
1,845,801
$
1,821,436
Diluted weighted average common shares
174,642
174,530
174,297
FFO per share
$
9.75
$
10.58
$
10.45
We also present “Core FFO per share,” a non-GAAP measure that represents FFO per share excluding the impact of (i) foreign currency exchange gains and losses, (ii) EITF D-42 charges related to the redemption of preferred securities, and (iii) certain other significant non-cash and/or nonrecurring income or expense items such as loss contingency accruals, casualties, transactional due diligence, and advisory costs. We review Core FFO per share to evaluate our ongoing operating performance and we believe it is used by investors and REIT analysts in a similar manner. However, Core FFO per share is not a substitute for net income per share. Because other REITs may not compute Core FFO per share in the same manner as we do, may not use the same terminology or may not present such a measure, Core FFO per share may not be comparable among REITs.
The following table reconciles FFO per share to Core FFO per share:
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Percentage
Percentage
Change
Change
FFO per share
$
9.75
$
10.58
(7.8)%
$
10.58
$
10.45
1.2%
Eliminate the per share impact of items
excluded from Core FFO, including
our equity share from investments:
Foreign currency exchange loss (gain)
0.56
(0.04)
(0.04)
(0.10)
Application of EITF D-42
0.28
0.21
0.21
-
Shurgard - IPO costs and casualty loss
-
-
-
0.03
(Forfeiture)/Acceleration of share-
based compensation expense due
to the departure of senior executives
-
(0.01)
(0.01)
0.18
Other items
0.02
0.01
0.01
-
Core FFO per share
$
10.61
$
10.75
(1.3)%
$
10.75
$
10.56
1.8%
Analysis of Net Income by Reportable Segment
The following discussion and analysis is presented and organized in accordance with Note 11 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements, “Segment Information.” Accordingly, refer to the table presented in Note 11 in order to reconcile such amounts to our total net income and for further information on our reportable segments.
Self-Storage Operations
Our self-storage operations are analyzed in four groups: (i) the 2,221 facilities that we have owned and operated on a stabilized basis since January 1, 2018 (the “Same Store Facilities”), (ii) 131 facilities we acquired after December 31, 2017 (the “Acquired facilities”), (iii) 148 facilities that have been newly developed or expanded, or that had commenced expansion by December 31, 2020 (the “Newly developed and expanded facilities”) and (iv) 48 other facilities, which are otherwise not stabilized with respect to occupancies or rental rates since January 1, 2018 (the “Other non-same store facilities”). See Note 11 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements “Segment Information,” for a reconciliation of the amounts in the tables below to our total net income.
Self-Storage Operations
Summary
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Percentage
Percentage
Change
Change
(Dollar amounts and square footage in thousands)
Revenues:
Same Store facilities
$
2,436,546
$
2,460,229
(1.0)%
$
2,460,229
$
2,423,485
1.5%
Acquired facilities
59,818
28,733
108.2%
28,733
5,167
456.1%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
180,764
151,043
19.7%
151,043
122,602
23.2%
Other non-same store facilities
44,502
44,547
(0.1)%
44,547
46,353
(3.9)%
2,721,630
2,684,552
1.4%
2,684,552
2,597,607
3.3%
Cost of operations (a):
Same Store facilities
687,828
669,763
2.7%
669,763
642,870
4.2%
Acquired facilities
27,627
12,456
121.8%
12,456
2,197
467.0%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
75,642
64,312
17.6%
64,312
48,858
31.6%
Other non-same store facilities
16,446
15,885
3.5%
15,885
15,814
0.4%
807,543
762,416
5.9%
762,416
709,739
7.4%
Net operating income (b):
Same Store facilities
1,748,718
1,790,466
(2.3)%
1,790,466
1,780,615
0.6%
Acquired facilities
32,191
16,277
97.8%
16,277
2,970
448.0%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
105,122
86,731
21.2%
86,731
73,744
17.6%
Other non-same store facilities
28,056
28,662
(2.1)%
28,662
30,539
(6.1)%
Total net operating income
1,914,087
1,922,136
(0.4)%
1,922,136
1,887,868
1.8%
Depreciation and amortization expense:
Same Store facilities
(422,461)
(409,270)
3.2%
(409,270)
(408,972)
0.1%
Acquired facilities
(40,986)
(24,355)
68.3%
(24,355)
(5,940)
310.0%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
(61,643)
(53,844)
14.5%
(53,844)
(45,454)
18.5%
Other non-same store facilities
(28,167)
(25,449)
10.7%
(25,449)
(23,280)
9.3%
Total depreciation and
amortization expense
(553,257)
(512,918)
7.9%
(512,918)
(483,646)
6.1%
Net income (loss):
Same Store facilities
1,326,257
1,381,196
(4.0)%
1,381,196
1,371,643
0.7%
Acquired facilities
(8,795)
(8,078)
8.9%
(8,078)
(2,970)
172.0%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
43,479
32,887
32.2%
32,887
28,290
16.2%
Other non-same store facilities
(111)
3,213
(103.5)%
3,213
7,259
(55.7)%
Total net income
$
1,360,830
$
1,409,218
(3.4)%
$
1,409,218
$
1,404,222
0.4%
Number of facilities at period end:
Same Store facilities
2,221
2,221
-
2,221
2,221
-
Acquired facilities
89.9%
176.0%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
2.1%
8.2%
Other non-same store facilities
0.0%
(2.0)%
2,548
2,483
2.6%
2,483
2,429
2.2%
Net rentable square footage at period end:
Same Store facilities
143,721
143,721
-
143,721
143,721
-
Acquired facilities
9,882
4,762
107.5%
4,762
1,629
192.3%
Newly developed and expanded facilities
17,716
16,649
6.4%
16,649
12,840
29.7%
Other non-same store facilities
3,732
3,776
(1.2)%
3,776
3,857
(2.1)%
175,051
168,908
3.6%
168,908
162,047
4.2%
(a)We revised our prior period financial statements to correct the presentation of share-based compensation expense between general and administrative expense and self-storage cost of operations. As a result, we revised our statements of income for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 with an increase in self-storage cost of operations of $9.8 million and $14.0 million, respectively, and a corresponding decrease to general and administrative expenses. This immaterial correction had no impact on our total expenses or net income. The correction also had no impact on our balance sheet, statements of comprehensive income, statements of equity, or cash flows as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018.
(b)Net operating income or “NOI” is a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes the impact of depreciation and amortization expense, which is based upon historical real estate costs and assumes that building values diminish ratably over time, while we believe that real estate values fluctuate due to market conditions. We utilize NOI in determining current property values, evaluating property performance, and in evaluating property operating trends. Direct net operating income (a subtotal within NOI) is also a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes the impact of supervisory payroll, centralized management costs and stock based compensation in addition to depreciation and amortization expense. We utilize direct net operating income in evaluating property performance and in evaluating property operating trends as compared to our competitors. We believe that investors and analysts utilize NOI and direct net operating income in a similar manner. These measures are not a substitute for net income, operating cash flow, or other related financial measures, in evaluating our operating results. See Note 11 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements for a reconciliation of NOI to our total net income for all periods presented.
Net operating income from our self-storage operations decreased 0.4% in 2020 and increased 1.8% in 2019, as compared to the previous year. The decrease in 2020 is due primarily to a reduction in Same Store net operating income due to the impact of the COVID Pandemic, partially offset by the acquisition and development of new facilities and the fill-up of unstabilized facilities.
Same Store Facilities
The Same Store Facilities consist of facilities that have been owned and operated on a stabilized level of occupancy, revenues and cost of operations since January 1, 2018. The composition of our Same Store Facilities allows us to more effectively evaluate the ongoing performance of our self-storage portfolio in 2018, 2019, and 2020 and exclude the impact of fill-up of unstabilized facilities, which can significantly affect operating trends. We believe the Same Store information is used by investors and REIT analysts in a similar manner.
The following table summarizes the historical operating results of these 2,221 facilities (143.7 million net rentable square feet) that represent approximately 82% of the aggregate net rentable square feet of our U.S. consolidated self-storage portfolio at December 31, 2020. It includes various measures and detail that we do not include in the analysis of the developed, acquired, and other non-same store facilities, due to the relative magnitude and importance of our same store facilities relative to our self-storage facilities.
Selected Operating Data for the Same Store Facilities (2,221 facilities)
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Percentage
Percentage
Change
Change
(Dollar amounts in thousands, except weighted average amounts)
Revenues:
Rental income
$
2,355,576
$
2,353,625
0.1%
$
2,353,625
$
2,317,577
1.6%
Late charges and
administrative fees
80,970
106,604
(24.0)%
106,604
105,908
0.7%
Total revenues (a)
2,436,546
2,460,229
(1.0)%
2,460,229
2,423,485
1.5%
Direct cost of operations (a):
Property taxes
247,860
240,451
3.1%
240,451
230,035
4.5%
On-site property manager
payroll
125,051
121,978
2.5%
121,978
119,125
2.4%
Repairs and maintenance
49,221
51,503
(4.4)%
51,503
49,917
3.2%
Utilities
39,459
43,461
(9.2)%
43,461
44,762
(2.9)%
Marketing
59,901
48,911
22.5%
48,911
33,249
47.1%
Other direct property costs
66,646
65,331
2.0%
65,331
63,762
2.5%
Total direct cost of operations
588,138
571,635
2.9%
571,635
540,850
5.7%
Direct net operating income
1,848,408
1,888,594
(2.1)%
1,888,594
1,882,635
0.3%
Indirect cost of operations (a):
Supervisory payroll
(39,291)
(37,719)
4.2%
(37,719)
(37,114)
1.6%
Centralized management costs
(47,713)
(49,453)
(3.5)%
(49,453)
(49,705)
(0.5)%
Share based compensation
(12,686)
(10,956)
15.8%
(10,956)
(15,201)
(27.9)%
Net operating income
1,748,718
1,790,466
(2.3)%
1,790,466
1,780,615
0.6%
Depreciation and
amortization expense
(422,461)
(409,270)
3.2%
(409,270)
(408,972)
0.1%
Net income
$
1,326,257
$
1,381,196
(4.0)%
$
1,381,196
$
1,371,643
0.7%
Gross margin (before indirect costs and
depreciation and amortization expense)
75.9%
76.8%
(1.2)%
76.8%
77.7%
(1.2)%
Gross margin (before depreciation
and amortization expense)
71.8%
72.8%
(1.4)%
72.8%
73.5%
(1.0)%
Weighted average for the period:
Square foot occupancy
94.5%
93.4%
1.2%
93.4%
93.0%
0.4%
Realized annual rental income per (b):
Occupied square foot
$
17.34
$
17.53
(1.1)%
$
17.53
$
17.33
1.2%
Available square foot
$
16.40
$
16.38
0.1%
$
16.38
$
16.12
1.6%
At December 31:
Square foot occupancy
94.2%
91.7%
2.7%
91.7%
91.3%
0.4%
Annual contract rent per
occupied square foot (c)
$
17.99
$
18.06
(0.4)%
$
18.06
$
17.95
0.6%
(a)Revenues and cost of operations do not include tenant reinsurance and merchandise sales and expenses generated at the facilities. See “Ancillary Operations” below for more information.
(b)Realized annual rent per occupied square foot is computed by dividing rental income, before late charges and administrative fees, by the weighted average occupied square feet for the period. Realized annual rent per available square foot (“REVPAF”) is computed by dividing rental income, before late charges and administrative fees, by the total available net rentable square feet for the period. These measures exclude late charges and administrative fees in order to provide a better measure of our ongoing level of revenue. Late charges are dependent upon the level of delinquency and administrative fees are dependent upon the level of move-ins. In addition, the rates charged for late charges and administrative fees can vary independently from rental rates. These measures take into consideration promotional discounts, which reduce rental income.
(c)Annual contract rent represents the agreed upon monthly rate that is paid by our tenants in place at the time of measurement. Contract rates are initially set in the lease agreement upon move-in and we adjust them from time to time with notice. Contract rent excludes other fees that are charged on a per-item basis, such as late charges and administrative fees, does not reflect the impact of promotional discounts, and does not reflect the impact of rents that are written off as uncollectible.
Analysis of Same Store Revenue
Revenues generated by our Same Store Facilities decreased by 1.0% in 2020, and increased by 1.5% in 2019, in each case as compared to the previous year. The decrease in 2020 is due to the negative impact caused by the COVID Pandemic, certain restrictions on rate increases to existing tenants imposed by local governments due to “States of Emergency”, reduced late charges and administrative fees, as well as the continued impact of increased new supply from new developments (see below).
The revenue increase in 2019 was due to a 1.2% increase in realized rent per occupied foot, combined with a 0.4% increase in average occupancy. Same Store revenue growth in 2019 was lower than long-term historical averages due to softness in demand for our storage space, which has led to lower move-in rental rates for new tenants (see below). We attribute some of this softness to local economic conditions and, in some markets most notably Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York and Portland, increased supply of newly constructed self-storage facilities.
Revenue Strategy
We believe a balanced occupancy and rate strategy will maximize our revenues over time. We regularly adjust the rental rates and promotional discounts offered (generally, “$1.00 rent for the first month”), as well as our marketing efforts on the Internet and other channels to maximize revenue from new tenants to replace tenants that vacate.
We typically increase rental rates to our long-term tenants (generally, those that have been with us for at least a year) once per year. As a result, the number of long-term tenants we have in our facilities is an important factor in our revenue growth. The level of rate increases to long-term tenants is based upon balancing the additional revenue from the increase against the negative impact of incremental move-outs, by considering the customer’s in-place rent and prevailing market rents, among other factors. During the year ended December 31, 2019, our primary revenue growth came from existing tenant rate increases. However, during the year ended December 31, 2020, rental rate increases were of smaller magnitude resulting from COVID Pandemic concerns and pricing regulations in multiple markets.
Realized Annual Rent per Occupied Square Foot
Realized annual rent per occupied square foot decreased 1.1% and increased 1.2% in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The decrease in realized rent per occupied square foot for the year ended December 31, 2020 was due to (i) our decision to temporarily curtail our tenant rate increase program for a limited period during the COVID Pandemic in response to anticipated negative economic impacts on our tenants and (ii) limitations on the magnitude
of rate increases given to existing tenants due to temporary governmental pricing limitations as a result of “State of Emergency” declarations.
The increase in realized rent per occupied foot for the year ended December 31, 2019 was due primarily to the impact of rate increases to existing long-term tenants.
In each of the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had an increased average length of stay. An increased average length of stay supports revenue growth, due to more long-term tenants who are eligible for rate increases, and a reduced requirement to replace vacating tenants with new tenants which can reduce promotional costs and increase our pricing leverage. This trend to an increased length of stay became more pronounced in 2020 due in significant part, we believe, to temporary effects resulting from the COVID Pandemic such as less consumer mobility.
Occupancy Levels
Our average square foot occupancy levels increased 1.2% and 0.4% on a year over year basis during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The improvement in occupancy trends in the year ended December 31, 2020 was due primarily to improved trends in move-outs, with year over year move-outs down 7.4% in the year ended December 31, 2020.
Demand historically has been higher in the summer months than in the winter months and, as a result, rental rates charged to new tenants have typically been higher in the summer months than in the winter months. Demand fluctuates due to various local and regional factors, including the overall economy. Demand into our system is also impacted by new supply of self-storage space as well as alternatives to self-storage.
Late Charges and Administrative Fees
We experienced a 24.0% year over year reduction in late charges and administrative fees collected during the year ended December 31, 2020. This decrease was due primarily to reduced late charges and lien fees beginning with the onset of the COVID Pandemic in early March 2020, due to (i) an acceleration in average collections whereby a greater percentage of tenants paid their monthly rent promptly to avoid the incurrence of such fees and, to a lesser extent and (ii) reduced move-in administrative fees due to lower move-ins.
Bad Debt and Collection Losses
Despite consumer stress and temporary delays of auctions due to logistical difficulties or governmental restrictions in year ended December 31, 2020, we did not experience a significant increase in bad debt from historical levels because of (i) federal government stimulus and supplements to unemployment benefits which mitigated consumer stress, and (ii) steps we took to augment our collection efforts and accelerate payment by our customers.
Selected Key Statistical Data
The following table sets forth average annual contract rent per square foot, and total square footage, for tenants moving in and moving out during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018. It also includes promotional discounts, which vary based upon the move-in contractual rates, move-in volume, and percentage of tenants moving in who receive the discount.
‎
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
(Amounts in thousands, except for per square foot amounts)
Tenants moving in during the period:
Average annual contract rent
per square foot
$
13.63
$
13.61
0.1%
$
13.61
$
14.05
(3.1)%
Square footage
100,878
105,731
(4.6)%
105,731
107,652
(1.8)%
Promotional discounts given
$
73,150
$
79,525
(8.0)%
$
79,525
$
82,837
(4.0)%
Tenants moving out during the period:
Average annual contract rent
per square foot
$
15.65
$
16.08
(2.7)%
$
16.08
$
16.13
(0.3)%
Square footage
97,303
105,068
(7.4)%
105,068
107,164
(2.0)%
Revenue Expectations
At December 31, 2020, in place contractual rent was 2.3% higher on a year-over-year basis (comprised of a 2.7% increase in square foot occupancy offset partially by a 0.4% decrease in annual contract rent per occupied foot).
As noted above, the COVID Pandemic resulted in reduced demand, lower rates charged to new tenants on a year over year basis, and curtailed rent increases to existing tenants during the first six months of 2020, which had continuing negative impact on revenue growth in the remainder of 2020. Notwithstanding the decrease in Same-Store revenue for all of 2020, revenue growth trends improved steadily in the last half of 2020, with increased demand for storage space, increased rates charged to new tenants moving in, decreased move-outs, and a resumption of rate increases to existing long-term tenant albeit at a lesser magnitude than in prior years. Total revenues increased 0.8% on a year over year basis in the three months ended December 31, 2020.
We expect continued revenue growth during the first half of 2021 supported by increased customer demand and modest move out activity. There is more uncertainty in the level of growth during the second half of 2021 given challenging comparables over 2020 and risk that customer behavior (particularly the level of move-out activity) returns to historical levels.
We expect that the impact of reduced late charges noted above will persist on a year over year basis through the quarter ending March 31, 2021.
Notwithstanding our expectations, we are in a time of significant uncertainty, and there are reasonably possible circumstances and events which could result in actual future revenues being significantly lower than our expectations, including the following:
Storage demand could decline or collection losses could increase due to increased recessionary circumstances, worsening of the COVID Pandemic, the potential confluence of higher seasonal influenza infections and COVID infections, or other factors.
The moderation of below-trend move-outs noted above could be sudden and dramatic, and/or disproportionally involve long-term tenants with higher rental rates.
It is possible that the COVID Pandemic could impact current seasonal demand trends in the short or long term, due to changes in certain factors impacting moving trends, such as potentially fewer college students living on-campus in favor of online learning or an increase in working from home reducing the necessity of moving for employment reasons.
Analysis of Same Store Cost of Operations
Costs of Operations
Cost of operations (excluding depreciation and amortization) increased 2.7% in 2020 as compared to 2019, and 4.2% in 2019 as compared to 2018, due primarily to increased property tax, marketing expense and on-site property manager payroll.
Property tax expense increased 3.1% in 2020 as compared to 2019, and 4.5% in 2019 as compared to 2018. We expect property tax expense growth of approximately 5.5% in 2021 due primarily to higher assessed values and, to a lesser extent, increased tax rates. See “Risk Factors - We have exposure to increased property tax in California” for further information on our property tax with respect to our California properties.
On-site property manager payroll expense increased 2.5% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 2.4% in 2019 as compared to 2018. The increase for 2020 includes the impact of COVID Pandemic measures taken between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020 to keep our facilities open, including a $3.00 hourly wage increase, and enhancement of paid time off benefits, for virtually all of our property managers, offset by a 6.9% year over year decrease in hours worked due to staffing reductions from reduced move-in and move-out activity and revisions to other operational processes. We expect reductions in hours worked to continue throughout 2021.
Repairs and maintenance expense decreased 4.4% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and increased 3.2% in 2019 as compared to 2018. Repair and maintenance costs include snow removal expense totaling $2.6 million, $4.1 million, and $3.7 million in 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. Excluding snow removal costs, repairs and maintenance decreased 1.8% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and increased 2.7% in 2019 as compared to 2018.
Repairs and maintenance expense levels are dependent upon many factors such as (i) sporadic occurrences such as accidents, damage, and equipment malfunctions, (ii) short-term local supply and demand factors for material and labor, and (iii) weather conditions, which can impact costs such as snow removal, roof repairs, and HVAC maintenance and repairs. Accordingly, it is difficult to estimate future repairs and maintenance expense.
Our utility expenses are comprised primarily of electricity costs, which are dependent upon energy prices and usage levels. Changes in usage levels are driven primarily by weather and temperature. Utility expense decreased 9.2% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 2.9% in 2019 as compared to 2018. It is difficult to estimate future utility costs, because weather, temperature, and energy prices are volatile and not predictable. The decreases experienced in 2020 are due primarily to investments we are making in energy saving technology such as solar power and LED lights which generate favorable returns on investment in the form of lower utility usage. We continue to make investments in solar power and LED lights and expect a decline in utility expense throughout 2021.
Marketing expense is comprised principally of Internet advertising and the operating costs of our telephone reservation center. Internet advertising expense, comprised primarily of keyword search fees assessed on a “per click” basis, varies based upon demand for self-storage space, the quantity of people inquiring about self-storage through online search, occupancy levels, the number and aggressiveness of bidding competitors and other factors. These factors are volatile; accordingly, Internet advertising can increase or decrease significantly in the short-term. Marketing expense increased 22.5% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 47.1% in 2019 as compared to 2018. These increases are due primarily to higher traditional “per click” advertising on paid search platforms as we have sought to attract more customers for our space, and cost per click for keyword search terms increased due to more keyword bidding competition from existing self-storage owners and operators, including owners of newly developed facilities and nontraditional storage providers. To a lesser extent, the increases reflects additional spending on social media outlets as well as aggregator websites, as we believe these channels provide exposure to incremental customers at a favorable cost. We expect moderation in the level of marketing expense growth in 2021.
Other direct property costs include administrative expenses specific to each self-storage facility, such as property insurance, telephone and data communication lines, business license costs, bank charges related to
processing the facilities’ cash receipts, tenant mailings, credit card fees, and the cost of operating each property’s rental office. These costs increased 2.0% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 2.5% in 2019 as compared to 2018. We continue to experience increased credit card fees due to a long-term trend of more customers paying with credit cards rather than cash, checks, or other methods of payment with lower transaction costs. We expect inflationary increases in other direct property costs in 2021.
Supervisory payroll expense, which represents cash compensation paid to the management personnel who directly and indirectly supervise the on-site property managers, increased 4.2% in 2020 as compared to 2019 due primarily to higher headcount, and increased 1.6% in 2019 as compared to 2018 due primarily to higher wage rates. We expect inflationary increases in 2021.
Centralized management costs represents administrative and cash compensation expenses for shared general corporate functions to the extent their efforts are devoted to self-storage operations. Such functions include information technology support, hardware, and software, as well as centralized administration of payroll, benefits, training, repairs and maintenance, customer service, pricing and marketing, operational accounting and finance, and legal costs. Centralized management costs decreased 3.5% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 0.5% in 2019 as compared to 2018. The decrease in 2020 was due to reduced headcount and reduced travel expenses. We expect increases in centralized management costs in 2021 due to increased headcount.
Share-based compensation expense includes the amortization of restricted share units and stock options granted to management personnel who directly and indirectly supervise the on-site property managers, as well as those employees responsible for providing shared general corporate functions to the extent their efforts are devoted to self-storage operations. Such functions are listed above under centralized management costs. Share-based compensation expense also includes related employer taxes and varies based upon the level of grants and their related vesting and amortization periods, forfeitures, as well as the Company’s common share price on the date of each grant.
Analysis of Same Store Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation and amortization for Same Store Facilities increased 3.2% in 2020 as compared to 2019 and 0.1% in 2019 as compared to 2018. We expect modest increases in depreciation expense in 2021 due to elevated levels of capital expenditures.
‎
Quarterly Financial Data
The following table summarizes selected quarterly financial data with respect to the Same Store Facilities:
For the Quarter Ended
March 31
June 30
September 30
December 31
Entire Year
(Amounts in thousands, except for per square foot amounts)
Total revenues:
$
609,053
$
596,896
$
611,085
$
619,512
$
2,436,546
$
601,805
$
615,564
$
628,078
$
614,782
$
2,460,229
$
592,267
$
603,230
$
620,706
$
607,282
$
2,423,485
Total cost of operations:
$
182,842
$
185,862
$
178,213
$
140,911
$
687,828
$
175,376
$
173,911
$
177,996
$
142,480
$
669,763
$
170,158
$
166,824
$
168,500
$
137,388
$
642,870
Property taxes:
$
70,097
$
69,913
$
69,072
$
38,778
$
247,860
$
66,744
$
67,466
$
67,272
$
38,969
$
240,451
$
63,689
$
64,373
$
64,153
$
37,820
$
230,035
Repairs and maintenance:
$
12,381
$
11,292
$
12,579
$
12,969
$
49,221
$
13,745
$
12,056
$
13,154
$
12,548
$
51,503
$
12,495
$
12,440
$
12,188
$
12,794
$
49,917
Marketing:
$
14,275
$
16,979
$
15,572
$
13,075
$
59,901
$
8,981
$
12,404
$
14,319
$
13,207
$
48,911
$
7,055
$
8,319
$
8,444
$
9,431
$
33,249
REVPAF:
$
16.24
$
16.13
$
16.50
$
16.72
$
16.40
$
16.00
$
16.41
$
16.72
$
16.38
$
16.38
$
15.75
$
16.08
$
16.51
$
16.15
$
16.12
Weighted average realized annual rent per occupied square foot:
$
17.44
$
17.11
$
17.27
$
17.56
$
17.34
$
17.31
$
17.46
$
17.75
$
17.60
$
17.53
$
17.10
$
17.14
$
17.61
$
17.47
$
17.33
Weighted average occupancy levels for the period:
93.1%
94.3%
95.5%
95.2%
94.5%
92.5%
94.0%
94.2%
93.1%
93.4%
92.1%
93.8%
93.8%
92.5%
93.0%
Analysis of Market Trends
The following table sets forth selected market trends in our Same Store Facilities:
Same Store Facilities Operating Trends by Market
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
(Amounts in thousands, except for weighted average data)
Market (number of facilities,
square footage in millions)
Revenues:
Los Angeles (212, 14.9)
$
381,535
$
379,097
0.6%
$
379,097
$
369,091
2.7%
San Francisco (128, 7.9)
205,558
202,747
1.4%
202,747
198,598
2.1%
New York (89, 6.2)
154,538
157,029
(1.6)%
157,029
153,980
2.0%
Seattle-Tacoma (86, 5.8)
114,606
114,774
(0.1)%
114,774
113,189
1.4%
Washington DC (89, 5.5)
112,739
114,483
(1.5)%
114,483
111,511
2.7%
Miami (80, 5.6)
108,598
111,402
(2.5)%
111,402
113,100
(1.5)%
Chicago (129, 8.1)
118,560
119,281
(0.6)%
119,281
118,056
1.0%
Atlanta (99, 6.5)
83,511
87,518
(4.6)%
87,518
86,055
1.7%
Dallas-Ft. Worth (101, 6.4)
83,162
84,988
(2.1)%
84,988
85,570
(0.7)%
Houston (84, 5.8)
70,975
73,683
(3.7)%
73,683
76,939
(4.2)%
Orlando-Daytona (72, 4.5)
60,772
62,869
(3.3)%
62,869
61,944
1.5%
Philadelphia (56, 3.5)
59,666
59,120
0.9%
59,120
56,747
4.2%
West Palm Beach (38, 2.5)
46,038
46,664
(1.3)%
46,664
46,230
0.9%
Tampa (52, 3.5)
46,216
47,706
(3.1)%
47,706
47,797
(0.2)%
Charlotte (50, 3.8)
41,006
41,781
(1.9)%
41,781
41,728
0.1%
All other markets (856, 53.2)
749,066
757,087
(1.1)%
757,087
742,950
1.9%
Total revenues
$
2,436,546
$
2,460,229
(1.0)%
$
2,460,229
$
2,423,485
1.5%
Net operating income:
Los Angeles
$
309,991
$
311,049
(0.3)%
$
311,049
$
303,648
2.4%
San Francisco
163,962
162,667
0.8%
162,667
160,757
1.2%
New York
108,681
111,424
(2.5)%
111,424
110,458
0.9%
Seattle-Tacoma
86,874
89,440
(2.9)%
89,440
88,238
1.4%
Washington DC
82,415
84,704
(2.7)%
84,704
82,859
2.2%
Miami
79,472
82,910
(4.1)%
82,910
85,703
(3.3)%
Chicago
62,749
63,319
(0.9)%
63,319
64,750
(2.2)%
Atlanta
59,940
64,423
(7.0)%
64,423
63,188
2.0%
Dallas-Ft. Worth
56,020
58,192
(3.7)%
58,192
59,575
(2.3)%
Houston
43,073
45,793
(5.9)%
45,793
50,290
(8.9)%
Orlando-Daytona
42,568
45,282
(6.0)%
45,282
44,965
0.7%
Philadelphia
41,572
41,592
(0.0)%
41,592
39,860
4.3%
West Palm Beach
32,752
34,125
(4.0)%
34,125
34,191
(0.2)%
Tampa
31,290
33,421
(6.4)%
33,421
34,100
(2.0)%
Charlotte
29,509
30,104
(2.0)%
30,104
31,244
(3.6)%
All other markets
517,850
532,021
(2.7)%
532,021
526,789
1.0%
Total net operating income
$
1,748,718
$
1,790,466
(2.3)%
$
1,790,466
$
1,780,615
0.6%
‎
Same Store Facilities Operating Trends by Market (Continued)
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
Weighted average square foot
occupancy:
Los Angeles
96.7%
95.2%
1.6%
95.2%
94.9%
0.3%
San Francisco
96.1%
94.3%
1.9%
94.3%
94.3%
0.0%
New York
95.2%
94.1%
1.2%
94.1%
94.2%
(0.1)%
Seattle-Tacoma
94.1%
93.0%
1.2%
93.0%
93.0%
0.0%
Washington DC
94.4%
93.4%
1.1%
93.4%
92.3%
1.2%
Miami
94.4%
93.0%
1.5%
93.0%
92.8%
0.2%
Chicago
93.8%
92.1%
1.8%
92.1%
90.3%
2.0%
Atlanta
92.8%
93.0%
(0.2)%
93.0%
93.2%
(0.2)%
Dallas-Ft. Worth
92.9%
92.1%
0.9%
92.1%
91.4%
0.8%
Houston
92.1%
90.1%
2.2%
90.1%
91.3%
(1.3)%
Orlando-Daytona
94.4%
94.2%
0.2%
94.2%
94.6%
(0.4)%
Philadelphia
96.1%
95.3%
0.8%
95.3%
94.9%
0.4%
West Palm Beach
95.0%
94.0%
1.1%
94.0%
93.8%
0.2%
Tampa
93.4%
92.6%
0.9%
92.6%
92.9%
(0.3)%
Charlotte
93.0%
91.9%
1.2%
91.9%
91.5%
0.4%
All other markets
94.5%
93.6%
1.0%
93.6%
92.9%
0.8%
Total weighted average
square foot occupancy
94.5%
93.4%
1.2%
93.4%
93.0%
0.4%
Realized annual rent per
occupied square foot:
Los Angeles
$
25.88
$
25.86
0.1%
$
25.86
$
25.23
2.5%
San Francisco
26.64
26.62
0.1%
26.62
26.02
2.3%
New York
25.62
26.05
(1.7)%
26.05
25.50
2.2%
Seattle-Tacoma
20.33
20.42
(0.4)%
20.42
20.15
1.3%
Washington DC
21.11
21.45
(1.6)%
21.45
21.21
1.1%
Miami
19.77
20.36
(2.9)%
20.36
20.70
(1.6)%
Chicago
14.96
15.15
(1.3)%
15.15
15.31
(1.0)%
Atlanta
13.15
13.56
(3.0)%
13.56
13.27
2.2%
Dallas-Ft. Worth
13.36
13.63
(2.0)%
13.63
13.82
(1.4)%
Houston
12.75
13.39
(4.8)%
13.39
13.81
(3.0)%
Orlando-Daytona
13.54
13.89
(2.5)%
13.89
13.64
1.8%
Philadelphia
16.86
16.65
1.3%
16.65
16.04
3.8%
West Palm Beach
18.51
18.72
(1.1)%
18.72
18.56
0.9%
Tampa
13.70
14.10
(2.8)%
14.10
14.09
0.1%
Charlotte
11.07
11.29
(1.9)%
11.29
11.32
(0.3)%
All other markets
14.35
14.48
(0.9)%
14.48
14.30
1.3%
Total realized rent per
occupied square foot
$
17.34
$
17.53
(1.1)%
$
17.53
$
17.33
1.2%
‎
Same Store Facilities Operating Trends by Market (Continued)
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
REVPAF:
Los Angeles
$
25.02
$
24.62
1.6%
$
24.62
$
23.95
2.8%
San Francisco
25.61
25.09
2.1%
25.09
24.54
2.2%
New York
24.39
24.50
(0.4)%
24.50
24.04
1.9%
Seattle-Tacoma
19.13
18.99
0.7%
18.99
18.74
1.3%
Washington DC
19.93
20.03
(0.5)%
20.03
19.58
2.3%
Miami
18.66
18.93
(1.4)%
18.93
19.21
(1.5)%
Chicago
14.04
13.95
0.6%
13.95
13.82
0.9%
Atlanta
12.20
12.62
(3.3)%
12.62
12.37
2.0%
Dallas-Ft. Worth
12.41
12.55
(1.1)%
12.55
12.63
(0.6)%
Houston
11.75
12.06
(2.6)%
12.06
12.60
(4.3)%
Orlando-Daytona
12.78
13.08
(2.3)%
13.08
12.90
1.4%
Philadelphia
16.20
15.86
2.1%
15.86
15.22
4.2%
West Palm Beach
17.59
17.59
0.0%
17.59
17.42
1.0%
Tampa
12.80
13.06
(2.0)%
13.06
13.08
(0.2)%
Charlotte
10.29
10.38
(0.9)%
10.38
10.36
0.2%
All other markets
13.57
13.55
0.1%
13.55
13.29
2.0%
Total REVPAF
$
16.40
$
16.38
0.1%
$
16.38
$
16.12
1.6%
Revenue declined on a year-over-year basis for nearly all of our markets in 2020 as compared to 2019. We believe that our geographic diversification and scale across substantially all major metropolitan markets in the U.S. provides some insulation from localized economic effects and enhances the stability of our cash flows. It is difficult to predict localized trends in short-term self-storage demand and operating results. Over the long run, we believe that markets that experience population growth, high employment, and otherwise exhibit economic strength and consistency will outperform markets that do not exhibit these characteristics.
Acquired Facilities
The Acquired Facilities represent 131 facilities that we acquired in 2018, 2019, and 2020. As a result of the stabilization process and timing of when these facilities were acquired, year-over-year changes can be significant.
The following table summarizes operating data with respect to the Acquired Facilities:
‎
ACQUIRED FACILITIES
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change (a)
Change (a)
($ amounts in thousands, except for per square foot amounts)
Revenues (b):
2018 Acquisitions
$
17,119
$
16,029
$
1,090
$
16,029
$
5,167
$
10,862
2019 Acquisitions
31,334
12,704
18,630
12,704
-
12,704
2020 Acquisitions
11,365
-
11,365
-
-
-
Total revenues
59,818
28,733
31,085
28,733
5,167
23,566
Cost of operations (b):
2018 Acquisitions
7,562
7,278
7,278
2,197
5,081
2019 Acquisitions
13,323
5,178
8,145
5,178
-
5,178
2020 Acquisitions
6,742
-
6,742
-
-
-
Total cost of operations
27,627
12,456
15,171
12,456
2,197
10,259
Net operating income:
2018 Acquisitions
9,557
8,751
8,751
2,970
5,781
2019 Acquisitions
18,011
7,526
10,485
7,526
-
7,526
2020 Acquisitions
4,623
-
4,623
-
-
-
Net operating income
32,191
16,277
15,914
16,277
2,970
13,307
Depreciation and
amortization expense
(40,986)
(24,355)
(16,631)
(24,355)
(5,940)
(18,415)
Net loss
$
(8,795)
$
(8,078)
$
(717)
$
(8,078)
$
(2,970)
$
(5,108)
At December 31:
Square foot occupancy:
2018 Acquisitions
89.8%
82.6%
8.7%
82.6%
79.6%
3.8%
2019 Acquisitions
91.7%
73.6%
24.6%
73.6%
-
-
2020 Acquisitions
63.5%
-
-
-
-
-
77.0%
76.7%
0.4%
76.7%
79.6%
(3.6)%
Annual contract rent per
occupied square foot:
2018 Acquisitions
$
11.59
$
11.98
(3.3)%
$
11.98
$
11.10
7.9%
2019 Acquisitions
11.93
12.27
(2.8)%
12.27
-
-
2020 Acquisitions
12.50
-
-
-
-
-
$
12.10
$
12.16
(0.5)%
$
12.16
$
11.10
9.5%
Number of facilities:
2018 Acquisitions
-
-
2019 Acquisitions
-
-
2020 Acquisitions
-
-
-
-
Net rentable square feet (in thousands):
2018 Acquisitions
1,653
1,629
1,629
1,629
-
2019 Acquisitions
3,154
3,133
3,133
-
3,133
2020 Acquisitions
5,075
-
5,075
-
-
-
9,882
4,762
5,120
4,762
1,629
3,133
ACQUIRED FACILITIES (Continued)
As of
‎December 31, 2020
Costs to acquire (in thousands):
2018 Acquisitions
$
181,020
2019 Acquisitions
429,850
2020 Acquisitions
796,065
$
1,406,935
(a)Represents the percentage change with respect to square foot occupancy and annual contract rent per occupied square foot, and the absolute nominal change with respect to all other items.
(b)Revenues and cost of operations do not include tenant reinsurance or merchandise sales generated at the facilities. See “Ancillary Operations” below for more information.
We believe that our economies of scale in marketing and operations allows us to generate higher net operating income from newly acquired facilities than was achieved by the previous owners. However, it can take 12 or more months for us to fully achieve the higher net operating income, or even longer in the case of an acquired facility with low occupancy levels and/or below market in place rents, and the ultimate levels of net operating income to be achieved can be affected by changes in general economic conditions. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will achieve our expectations with respect to these newly acquired facilities.
The Acquired Facilities have an aggregate of approximately 9.9 million net rentable square feet, including 0.8 million in Virginia, 0.7 million in each of Minnesota and Texas, 0.6 million in each of Florida and Ohio, 0.5 million each in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, 0.4 million in each of Colorado, Indiana, Illinois and Nebraska, 0.3 million in each of Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington and 1.0 million in other states.
For 2020, the weighted average annualized yield on cost, based upon net operating income, for the 25 properties acquired in 2018 was 5.3%. The yield for the facilities acquired in 2019 is not meaningful due to the presence of unstabilized facilities. The yield for the facilities acquired in 2020 is not meaningful due to our limited ownership period.
Subsequent to December 31, 2020, we acquired or were under contract to acquire 40 self-storage facilities across 18 states with 3.5 million net rentable square feet, for $580.1 million. These include 12 newly developed facilities that are expected to close as they are completed throughout 2021.
We are actively seeking to acquire additional facilities and the environment for new acquisitions has improved. We are observing increased selling activity for both new constructed non-stabilized and stabilized properties. However, future acquisition volume will depend upon whether additional owners will be motivated to market their facilities, which will in turn depend upon factors such as economic conditions and the level of seller confidence.
Analysis of Depreciation and Amortization of Acquired Facilities
Depreciation and amortization with respect to the Acquired Facilities totaled $41.0 million, $24.4 million and $5.9 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. These amounts include (i) depreciation of the acquired buildings, which is recorded generally on a straight line basis over a 25 year period, and (ii) amortization of cost allocated to the tenants in place upon acquisition of a facility, which is recorded based upon the benefit of such existing tenants to each period and thus is highest when the facility is first acquired and declines as such tenants vacate. With respect to the Acquired Facilities owned at December 31, 2020, depreciation of buildings and amortization of tenant intangibles is expected to aggregate approximately $56.5 million in the year ending December 31, 2021. There will be additional depreciation and amortization of tenant intangibles with respect to new buildings that are acquired in 2021.
Developed and Expanded Facilities
The developed and expanded facilities include 77 facilities that were developed on new sites since January 1, 2015, and 71 facilities subject to expansion of their net rentable square footage. Of these expansions, 20 were completed at January 1, 2019, 39 were completed in the 24 months ended December 31, 2020, and 12 were in process at December 31, 2020.
The following table summarizes operating data with respect to the Developed and Expanded Facilities:
DEVELOPED AND EXPANDED
FACILITIES
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change (a)
Change (a)
($ amounts in thousands, except for per square foot amounts)
Revenues (b):
Developed in 2015
$
18,228
$
17,630
$
$
17,630
$
16,648
$
Developed in 2016 - 2018
70,180
56,868
13,312
56,868
37,625
19,243
Developed in 2019
6,455
1,720
4,735
1,720
-
1,720
Developed in 2020
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
33,921
29,354
4,567
29,354
23,752
5,602
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
36,031
28,898
7,133
28,898
27,492
1,406
Expansions in process
15,648
16,573
(925)
16,573
17,085
(512)
Total revenues
180,764
151,043
29,721
151,043
122,602
28,441
Cost of operations (b):
Developed in 2015
5,720
5,842
(122)
5,842
5,712
Developed in 2016 - 2018
29,728
27,694
2,034
27,694
22,396
5,298
Developed in 2019
4,685
1,915
2,770
1,915
-
1,915
Developed in 2020
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
11,492
10,462
1,030
10,462
8,156
2,306
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
19,372
14,571
4,801
14,571
8,867
5,704
Expansions in process
4,262
3,828
3,828
3,727
Total cost of operations
75,642
64,312
11,330
64,312
48,858
15,454
Net operating income (loss):
Developed in 2015
12,508
11,788
11,788
10,936
Developed in 2016 - 2018
40,452
29,174
11,278
29,174
15,229
13,945
Developed in 2019
1,770
(195)
1,965
(195)
-
(195)
Developed in 2020
(82)
-
(82)
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
22,429
18,892
3,537
18,892
15,596
3,296
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
16,659
14,327
2,332
14,327
18,625
(4,298)
Expansions in process
11,386
12,745
(1,359)
12,745
13,358
(613)
Net operating income
105,122
86,731
18,391
86,731
73,744
12,987
Depreciation and
amortization expense
(61,643)
(53,844)
(7,799)
(53,844)
(45,454)
(8,390)
Net income
$
43,479
$
32,887
$
10,592
$
32,887
$
28,290
$
4,597
At December 31:
Square foot occupancy:
Developed in 2015
92.9%
90.0%
3.2%
90.0%
89.1%
1.0%
Developed in 2016 - 2018
88.6%
74.1%
19.6%
74.1%
63.5%
16.7%
Developed in 2019
84.6%
38.1%
122.0%
38.1%
-
-
Developed in 2020
34.0%
-
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
88.5%
75.2%
17.7%
75.2%
59.1%
27.2%
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
72.7%
57.8%
25.8%
57.8%
83.8%
(31.0)%
Expansions in process
88.8%
90.9%
(2.3)%
90.9%
90.7%
0.2%
82.8%
69.6%
19.0%
69.6%
69.8%
(0.3)%
DEVELOPED AND EXPANDED
FACILITIES (Continued)
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change (a)
Change (a)
(Amounts in thousands, except for number of facilities)
Annual contract rent per occupied square foot:
Developed in 2015
$
16.10
$
15.76
2.2%
$
15.76
$
14.87
6.0%
Developed in 2016 - 2018
13.57
13.37
1.5%
13.37
11.87
12.6%
Developed in 2019
9.69
10.13
(4.3)%
10.13
-
-
Developed in 2020
10.08
-
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
14.72
14.98
(1.7)%
14.98
16.06
(6.7)%
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
10.48
11.71
(10.5)%
11.71
14.55
(19.5)%
Expansions in process
23.07
24.26
(4.9)%
24.26
24.60
-1.4%
$
13.30
$
14.01
(5.1)%
$
14.01
$
14.45
(3.0)%
Number of facilities:
Developed in 2015
-
-
Developed in 2016 - 2018
-
-
Developed in 2019
-
-
Developed in 2020
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
-
-
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
-
-
Expansions in process
-
-
Net rentable square feet (c):
Developed in 2015
1,242
1,242
-
1,242
1,242
-
Developed in 2016 - 2018
6,250
6,250
-
6,250
6,135
Developed in 2019
1,057
1,057
-
1,057
-
1,057
Developed in 2020
-
-
-
-
Expansions completed before 2019
2,754
2,754
-
2,754
2,689
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020
5,327
4,631
4,631
2,029
2,602
Expansions in process
(30)
17,716
16,649
1,067
16,649
12,840
3,809
As of
‎December 31, 2020
Costs to develop:
Developed in 2015
$
119,258
Developed in 2016 - 2018
759,643
Developed in 2019
150,387
Developed in 2020
42,063
Expansions completed before 2019 (d)
159,217
Expansions completed in 2019 or 2020 (d)
319,442
$
1,550,010
(a)Represents the percentage change with respect to square foot occupancy and annual contract rent per occupied square foot, and the absolute nominal change with respect to all other items.
(b)Revenues and cost of operations do not include tenant reinsurance or merchandise sales generated at the facilities. See “Ancillary Operations” below for more information.
(c)The facilities included above have an aggregate of approximately 17.7 million net rentable square feet at December 31, 2020, including 6.6 million in Texas, 2.4 million in California, 2.3 million in Florida, 1.5 million in Colorado, 1.1 million in Minnesota, 0.8 million in North Carolina, 0.7 million in Washington, 0.4 million in Missouri, 0.3 million in each of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and South Carolina and 0.7 million in other states.
(d)These amounts only include the direct cost incurred to expand and renovate these facilities, and do not include (i) the original cost to develop or acquire the facility or (ii) the lost revenue on space demolished during the construction and fill-up period.
It typically takes at least three to four years for a newly developed or expanded self-storage facility to stabilize with respect to revenues. Physical occupancy can be achieved as early as two to three years following completion of the development or expansion, through offering lower rental rates during fill-up. As a result, even after achieving high occupancy, there can still be a period of elevated revenue growth as the tenant base matures and higher rental rates are achieved.
We believe that our development and redevelopment activities generate favorable risk-adjusted returns over the long run. However, in the short run, our earnings are diluted during the construction and stabilization period due to the cost of capital to fund the development cost, as well as the related construction and development overhead expenses included in general and administrative expense. We believe the level of dilution incurred in 2019 and 2020 will continue at similar levels in 2021.
Our existing unstabilized facilities continued to fill up in terms of occupancies consistent with our general expectations during 2020, despite the impact of the COVID Pandemic, and we expect that trend to continue. Our unstabilized facilities are affected by the same market dynamics that affect our Same Store properties. Accordingly, whether we ultimately achieve our yield expectations, and the timeframe for reaching stabilized cash flows, depends largely upon the same factors affecting aggregate demand, move-ins, move-outs, and realized annual rent per occupied square foot for our Same Store Facilities as set forth under “Analysis of Same Store Revenue” above.
At December 31, 2020, we had a pipeline to develop 15 new self-storage facilities and expand 23 existing self-storage facilities, which will add approximately 3.6 million net rentable square feet at a cost of $561.4 million. We have continued to add projects to our development throughout 2020, despite the impact of the COVID Pandemic. We expect to continue to seek to add projects to maintain a robust pipeline. Our ability to do so continues to be challenged by various constraints such as difficulty in finding projects that meet our risk-adjusted yield expectations, and challenges in obtaining building permits for self-storage facilities in certain municipalities.
Newly Developed Facilities
The facilities included under “Developed in 2015” in the table above had high occupancies at December 31, 2018, but had 3.4% year over year revenue growth in 2020 which exceeds the 1.0% reduction in year over year revenue growth in the Same Store Facilities. This outperformance relative to the Same Store Facilities reflects the maturity of the existing tenant base following attainment of high occupancy, illustrating the latter stage of the stabilization process noted above. The yield on cost for these facilities, based upon the net operating income during 2020, was 10.5%.
We typically underwrite new developments to stabilize at approximately an 8.0% NOI yield on cost. We believe the 2016-2018 developed facilities, in aggregate, will meet that target on stabilization, though not to the same level of yield as the 2015 developed facilities, and have thus far leased-up as expected. The occupancies of facilities developed in 2019 and 2020 have leased-up as expected and are at the beginning of their revenue stabilization periods. We expect continued growth in these in 2021 and beyond as they continue to stabilize. The annualized yields that may be achieved on these facilities upon stabilization will depend on many factors, including local and current market
conditions in the vicinity of each property, the level of new and existing supply, as well as the impact of the COVID Pandemic.
We have 15 additional newly developed facilities in process, which will have a total of 1.4 million net rentable square feet of storage space and have an aggregate development cost totaling approximately $235.6 million. We expect these facilities to open over the next 18 to 24 months.
Expansions of Existing Facilities
The expansion of an existing facility involves the construction of new space on an existing facility, either on existing unused land or through the demolition of existing buildings in order to facilitate densification. The construction costs for an expanded facility may include, in addition to adding space, adding amenities such as climate control to existing space, improving the visual appeal of the facility, and to a much lesser extent, the replacement of existing doors, roofs, and HVAC.
The return profile on the expansion of existing facilities differs from a new facility, due to a lack of land cost, and there can be less cash flow risk because we have more direct knowledge of the local demand for space on the site as compared to a new facility. However, expansions involve the demolition of existing revenue-generating space with the loss of the related revenues during the construction and fill-up period.
The facilities under “completed expansions” represent those facilities where the expansions have been completed at December 31, 2020. We incurred a total of $478.7 million in direct cost to expand these facilities, demolished a total of 1.1 million net rentable square feet of storage space, and built a total of 5.2 million net rentable square feet of new storage space.
The facilities under “expansions in process” represent those facilities where development is in process at December 31, 2020. We have a pipeline to add a total of 2.2 million net rentable square feet of storage space by expanding existing self-storage facilities for an aggregate direct development cost of $325.8 million.
Analysis of Depreciation and Amortization of Developed and Expanded Facilities
Depreciation and amortization with respect to the Developed and Expanded Facilities totaled $61.6 million, $53.8 million and $45.5 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. These amounts represent depreciation of the developed buildings and, in the case of the expanded facilities, the legacy depreciation on the existing buildings. With respect to the Developed and Expanded Facilities completed at December 31, 2020, depreciation of buildings is expected to aggregate approximately $67.3 million in 2021. There will be additional depreciation of new buildings that are developed or expanded in 2021.
Other non-same store facilities
The “Other non-same store facilities” represent facilities which, while not newly acquired, developed, or expanded, are not fully stabilized since January 1, 2018, due primarily to casualty events such as hurricanes, floods, and fires.
The Other non-same store facilities have an aggregate 3.7 million net rentable square feet, including 0.8 million in Texas, 0.5 million in each of Ohio and Oklahoma, 0.4 million in South Carolina, 0.3 million in each Florida and New York, and 0.9 million in other states.
The net operating income for these facilities decreased from $30.5 million in 2018 to $28.7 million in 2019 and decreased from $28.7 million in 2019 to $28.1 million in 2020. During 2020, 2019, and 2018, the average occupancy for these facilities totaled 89.2%, 86.1%, and 85.5%, respectively, and the realized rent per occupied square feet totaled $12.66, $13.11, and $13.92, respectively.
Over the longer term, we expect the growth in operations of these facilities to be similar to that of our Same Store facilities. However, in the short run, year over year comparisons will vary due to the impact of the underlying events which resulted in these facilities being classified as non-same store.
Depreciation and amortization with respect to the other non-same store facilities totaled $28.2 million, $25.4 million and $23.3 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. We expect depreciation for these facilities in 2021 to approximate the depreciation incurred in 2020.
Ancillary Operations
Ancillary revenues and expenses include amounts associated with the reinsurance of policies against losses to goods stored by tenants in our self-storage facilities in the U.S., the sale of merchandise at our self-storage facilities and third party property management. The following table sets forth our ancillary operations:
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Revenues:
Tenant reinsurance premiums
$
149,286
$
131,913
$
17,373
$
131,913
$
125,575
$
6,338
Merchandise
29,702
30,358
(656)
30,358
31,098
(740)
Third party property management
14,450
8,285
6,165
8,285
5,243
3,042
Total revenues
193,438
170,556
22,882
170,556
161,916
8,640
Cost of Operations:
Tenant reinsurance
28,486
26,202
2,284
26,202
25,646
Merchandise
17,609
18,002
(393)
18,002
18,345
(343)
Third party property management
13,824
6,532
7,292
6,532
3,353
3,179
Total cost of operations
59,919
50,736
9,183
50,736
47,344
3,392
Net operating income
Tenant reinsurance
120,800
105,711
15,089
105,711
99,929
5,782
Merchandise
12,093
12,356
(263)
12,356
12,753
(397)
Third party property management
1,753
(1,127)
1,753
1,890
(137)
Total net operating income
$
133,519
$
119,820
$
13,699
$
119,820
$
114,572
$
5,248
Tenant reinsurance operations: Our customers have the option of purchasing insurance from a non-affiliated insurance company to cover certain losses to their goods stored at our facilities. A wholly-owned, consolidated subsidiary of Public Storage fully reinsures such policies, and thereby assumes all risk of losses under these policies from the insurance company. The subsidiary receives reinsurance premiums, substantially equal to the premiums collected from our tenants, from the non-affiliated insurance company. Such reinsurance premiums are shown as “Tenant reinsurance premiums” in the above table.
Tenant reinsurance revenue increased 13.2% in 2020 and 5.0% in 2019 on a year over year basis. These increases reflect higher average premiums, as well as an increase in the tenant base with respect to acquired, newly developed, and expanded facilities. Tenant insurance revenues with respect to our Same Store Facilities totaled $123.5 million, $114.5 million, and $112.3 million in 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively, representing a 7.9% year over year increase in 2020 and 2.0% year over year increase in 2019.
We expect future growth will come primarily from customers of newly acquired and developed facilities, as well as additional tenants at our existing unstabilized self-storage facilities.
Cost of operations primarily includes claims paid as well as claims adjustment expenses. Claims expenses vary based upon the number of insured tenants and the volume of events which drive customer covered losses, such as burglary, as well as catastrophic weather events affecting multiple properties such as hurricanes and floods. Cost of operations were $28.5 million in 2020, $26.2 million in 2019, and $25.6 million in 2018.
Merchandise sales: We sell locks, boxes, and packing supplies at our self-storage facilities and the level of sales of these items is primarily impacted by the level of move-ins and other customer traffic at our self-storage facilities. We do not expect any significant changes in revenues or profitability from our merchandise sales in 2021.
Third party property management: At December 31, 2020, we manage 92 facilities for third parties, and were under contract to manage 25 additional facilities including 24 facilities that are currently under construction. While we expect this business to increase in scope and size, we don’t expect any significant changes in overall profitability of this business in the near term as we seek new properties to manage and are in the earlier stages of lease-up for newly managed properties.
Equity in earnings of unconsolidated real estate entities
At December 31, 2020, we had equity investments in PSB and Shurgard which we account for on the equity method and record our pro-rata share of the net income of these entities for each period. The following table, and the discussion below, sets forth the significant components of our equity in earnings of unconsolidated real estate entities:
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Equity in earnings:
PSB
$
64,835
$
54,090
$
10,745
$
54,090
$
89,362
$
(35,272)
Shurgard
15,662
15,457
15,457
14,133
1,324
Total equity in earnings
$
80,497
$
69,547
$
10,950
$
69,547
$
103,495
$
(33,948)
Investment in PSB: Throughout all periods presented, we owned 7,158,354 shares of PSB common stock and 7,305,355 limited partnership units in an operating partnership controlled by PSB, representing an aggregate approximately 42% common equity interest. The limited partnership units are convertible at our option, subject to certain conditions, on a one-for-one basis into PSB common stock.
At December 31, 2020, PSB wholly-owned approximately 27.7 million rentable square feet of commercial space and had a 95% interest in a 395-unit apartment complex. PSB also manages commercial space that we own pursuant to property management agreements.
Included in our equity earnings from PSB are (i) our equity share of gains on sale of real estate totaling $11.3 million, $4.4 million and $37.7 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively, and (ii) our equity share of preferred redemption charges totaling $4.6 million for 2019.
Equity in earnings from PSB, excluding the aforementioned real estate gains and preferred redemption charges, decreased $0.7 million in 2020 as compared to 2019 due primarily to reduced net operating income from PSB’s sale of assets and increased $2.6 million in 2019 as compared to 2018 due primarily to improved property operations. See Note 4 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements for further discussion regarding PSB. PSB’s filings and selected financial information, including discussion of the factors that affect its earnings, including impacts from the COVID Pandemic, can be accessed through the SEC, and on PSB’s website, www.psbusinessparks.com. Information on this website is not incorporated by reference herein and is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Investment in Shurgard: Throughout all periods presented, we effectively owned, directly and indirectly 31.3 million Shurgard common shares. On October 15, 2018, Shurgard completed an initial global offering (the “Offering”), issuing 25.0 million of its common shares to third parties at a price of €23 per share (€575 million in gross proceeds), reducing our ownership interest from 49% to approximately 35%. Following the Offering, Shurgard’s shares trade on Euronext Brussels under the “SHUR” symbol. While we did not sell any shares in the Offering, and have no current plans to do so, we recorded a gain on disposition in 2018 totaling $151.6 million as if we had sold a proportionate share of our investment in Shurgard.
At December 31, 2020, Shurgard owned 241 self-storage facilities with approximately 13 million net rentable square feet. Shurgard pays us license fees for use of the “Shurgard” trademark, as described in more detail in Note 4 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements.
In 2020, 2019, and 2018, Shurgard acquired six facilities, three facilities and eight facilities, respectively, for an aggregate cost of $55.6 million, $17.6 million, and $114.5 million, respectively. In 2020, Shurgard opened one newly developed facility at an aggregate cost totaling $17.2 million, and in each of 2019 and 2018, Shurgard opened two newly developed facilities at an aggregate cost totaling $22.2 million, and $19.6 million, respectively.
The $0.2 million increase in our equity earnings from Shurgard from 2019 to 2020 is due to the impact of improved same store operating income offset partially by increases in tax and depreciation expense. The increase of $1.3 million from 2018 to 2019 is due to (i) a $10.1 million decrease in our equity share of depreciation expense, (ii) a $5.2 million decrease in our equity share of costs due to a casualty loss occurring in 2018 and the costs of the Offering, offset partially by (iii) a reduced average equity ownership interest during 2019 due to the Offering as well as $220 million uninvested offering proceeds, and (iv) a 5.2% reduction in average exchange rates of the U.S. Dollar to the Euro.
Shurgard’s public filings and publicly reported information, including discussion of the factors that affect its earnings, including impacts from the COVID Pandemic, can be obtained on its website, https://corporate.shurgard.eu and on the website of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, http://www.bourse.lu. Information on these websites is not incorporated by reference herein and is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
For purposes of recording our equity in earnings from Shurgard, the Euro was translated at exchange rates of approximately 1.226 U.S. Dollars per Euro at December 31, 2020 (1.122 at December 31, 2019), and average exchange rates of 1.141 for 2020, 1.120 for 2019, and 1.181 for 2018.
Analysis of items not allocated to segments
General and administrative expense: The following table sets forth our general and administrative expense:
Year Ended December 31,
Year Ended December 31,
Change
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Share-based compensation expense
$
19,068
$
14,522
$
4,546
$
14,522
$
54,592
$
(40,070)
Costs of senior executives
2,621
2,309
2,309
4,822
(2,513)
Development and acquisition costs
10,076
6,850
3,226
6,850
5,441
1,409
Tax compliance costs and taxes paid
7,949
5,081
2,868
5,081
5,438
(357)
Legal costs
10,021
7,692
2,329
7,692
8,234
(542)
Public company costs
4,975
5,007
(32)
5,007
4,712
Other costs
28,489
20,685
7,804
20,685
21,473
(788)
Total
$
83,199
$
62,146
$
21,053
$
62,146
$
104,712
$
(42,566)
Share-based compensation expense includes the amortization of restricted share units and stock options granted to certain corporate employees and trustees, as well as related employer taxes. We revised our prior period financial statements to correct the presentation of share-based compensation expense between general and administrative expense and self-storage cost of operations. As a result, we revised our statements of income for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 with an increase in self-storage cost of operations of $9.8 million and $14.0 million, respectively, and a corresponding decrease to general and administrative expenses. This immaterial correction had no impact on our total expenses or net income. The correction also had no impact on the balance sheet, statements of comprehensive income, statements of equity, or cash flows as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018.
Share-based compensation expense, as well as related employer taxes, for management personnel who directly and indirectly supervise the on-site property managers, as well as those employees responsible for providing shared general corporate functions to the extent their efforts are devoted to self-storage operations, are included as self-storage cost of operations. See “Same Store Facilities” for further information. Share-based compensation expense varies based upon the level of grants and their related vesting and amortization periods, forfeitures, as well as the Company’s common share price on the date of each grant.
In February 2018, we announced that our CEO and CFO at the time were retiring from their executive roles at the end of 2018 and would serve only as trustees of the Company. Accordingly, all remaining share-based compensation expense for these two executives was amortized through the end of 2018, resulting in approximately $30.7 million in incremental share-based compensation expense for 2018.
In July 2020, our share-based compensation plans were modified to allow immediate vesting upon retirement (“Retirement Acceleration”), and to extend the exercisability of outstanding stock options up to a year after retirement, for currently outstanding and future grants. Employees are eligible for Retirement Acceleration if they meet certain conditions including length of service, age, notice of intent to retire, and facilitation of succession for their role. This modification resulted in incremental share-based compensation expense during 2020.
Costs of senior executives represent the cash compensation paid to our CEO and CFO.
Development and acquisition costs primarily represent internal and external expenses related to our development and acquisition of real estate facilities and varies primarily based upon the level of activities. The amounts in the above table are net of $11.8 million, $12.0 million, and $12.2 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively, in development costs that were capitalized to newly developed and redeveloped self-storage facilities.
During 2020, we incurred $3.2 million in costs associated with the write-off of cancelled development projects. Development and acquisition costs are expected to remain consistent in 2021 with the amount incurred in 2019.
Tax compliance costs and taxes paid include taxes paid to various state and local authorities, the internal and external costs of filing tax returns, costs associated with complying with federal and state tax laws, and maintaining our compliance with Internal Revenue Service REIT rules. Such costs vary primarily based upon the tax rates of the various states in which we do business.
Legal costs include internal personnel as well as fees paid to legal firms and other third parties with respect to general corporate legal matters and risk management, and varies based upon the level of legal activity. The future level of legal costs is not determinable.
Public company costs represent the incremental costs of operating as a publicly-traded company, such as internal and external investor relations expenses, stock listing and transfer agent fees, Board costs, and costs associated with maintaining compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Other costs represent certain professional and consulting fees, payroll, and overhead that are not attributable to our property operations. Such costs include nonrecurring and variable items, including $1.6 million in due diligence costs incurred in 2020, in connection with our non-binding proposal, which we did not proceed with, to acquire 100% of the stapled securities of National Storage REIT, as well as $5.6 million in advisory costs. The level of these costs depends upon corporate activities and initiatives and, as a result, such costs are not predictable.
Our future general and administrative expenses are difficult to estimate, due to their dependence upon many factors, including those noted above.
Interest and other income: Interest and other income is comprised primarily of the net income from our commercial operations, our property management operation, interest earned on cash balances, and trademark license fees received from Shurgard, as well as sundry other income items that are received from time to time in varying amounts. Excluding amounts attributable to our commercial operations totaling $8.6 million, $8.9 million, and $9.9 million in 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively, interest and other income decreased $4.0 million in 2020 and increased $3.1 million in 2019 on a year over year basis. The decrease for 2020 includes $10.6 million of interest earned on cash balances, partially offset by litigation settlements and the early repayment of notes receivable. The level of other interest and income items in 2021 will be dependent upon the level of cash balances we retain, interest rates, and the level of sundry other income items.
Interest expense: For 2020, 2019 and 2018, we incurred $59.7 million, $49.6 million, and $37.3 million, respectively, of interest on our outstanding debt. In determining interest expense, these amounts were offset by capitalized interest of $3.4 million, $3.9 million and $4.8 million during 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively, associated with our development activities. The increase in 2020, 2019, and 2018 is due to the issuance of debt. At December 31, 2020, we had $2.5 billion of debt outstanding, with an average interest rate of approximately 2.4%. On January 19, 2021, we issued, $500 million of senior notes bearing interest at an annual rate of 0.875% and maturing on February 15, 2026.
Future interest expense will be dependent upon the level of outstanding debt and the amount of in-process development costs.
Foreign Exchange Gain (Loss): For 2020, we recorded a foreign currency translation loss of $98.0 million representing the change in the U.S. Dollar equivalent of our Euro-denominated unsecured notes due to fluctuations in exchange rates (gains of $7.8 million and loss of $18.1 million for 2019 and 2018, respectively). The Euro was translated at exchange rates of approximately 1.226 U.S. Dollars per Euro at December 31, 2020, 1.122 at December 31, 2019 and 1.144 at December 31, 2018. Future gains and losses on foreign currency translation will be
dependent upon changes in the relative value of the Euro to the U.S. Dollar, and the level of Euro-denominated debt outstanding.
Gain on Real Estate Investment Sales: In 2020, 2019 and 2018, we recorded gains on real estate investment sales totaling $1.5 million, $0.3 million and $37.9 million, respectively. On October 18, 2018, we sold our property in West London to Shurgard for $42.1 million and recorded a related gain on sale of real estate of approximately $31.5 million. The remainder of the gains are primarily in connection with the partial sale of real estate facilities pursuant to eminent domain proceedings.
Gain due to Shurgard Public Offering: In connection with Shurgard’s Offering of its common shares to the public, our equity interest in Shurgard decreased from 49% to 35.2%. While we did not sell any of our shares in the Offering, we recorded a gain on disposition in 2018 of $151.6 million, as if we had sold a proportionate share of our investment in Shurgard.
Net Income Allocable to Preferred Shareholders: Net income allocable to preferred shareholders based upon distributions totaled $207.1 million, $210.2 million, and $216.3 million in 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. These decreases are due primarily to lower average coupon rates due to redemptions of preferred shares with the proceeds from the issuance of new series with lower market coupon rates. We also allocated $48.3 million and $32.7 million of income from our common shareholders to the holders of our preferred shares in 2020 and 2019, respectively, (none in 2018) in connection with the redemption of our preferred shares. Based upon our preferred shares outstanding at December 31, 2020, our quarterly distribution to our preferred shareholders is expected to be approximately $45.2 million.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
While being a REIT allows us to minimize the payment of U.S. federal corporate income tax expense, we are required to distribute 100% of our taxable income to our shareholders. This requirements limits cash flow from operations that can be retained and reinvested in the business, increasing our reliance upon raising capital to fund growth.
Because raising capital is important to our growth, we endeavor to maintain a strong financial profile characterized by strong credit metrics, including low leverage relative to our total capitalization and operating cash flows. We are one of the highest rated REITs, as rated by major rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. Our senior debt has an “A” credit rating by Standard & Poor’s and “A2” by Moody’s. Our credit ratings on each of our series of preferred shares are “A3” by Moody’s and “BBB+” by Standard & Poor’s. Our credit profile and ratings enable us to effectively access both the public and private capital markets to raise capital.
While we must distribute our taxable income, we are nonetheless able to retain operating cash flow to the extent that our tax depreciation exceeds our maintenance capital expenditures. In recent years, we have retained approximately $200 million to $300 million per year in cash flow.
Capital needs in excess of retained cash flow are met with: (i) preferred equity, (ii) medium and long-term debt, and (iii) common equity. We select among these sources of capital based upon relative cost, availability, the desire for leverage, and considering potential constraints caused by certain features of capital sources, such as debt covenants. We view our line of credit, as well as short-term bank loans, as bridge financing.
We have a $500.0 million revolving line of credit which we occasionally use as temporary “bridge” financing until we are able to raise longer term capital. As of December 31, 2020 and February 24, 2021, there were no borrowings outstanding on the revolving line of credit, however, we do have approximately $24.3 million of outstanding letters of credit which limits our borrowing capacity to $475.7 million. Our line of credit matures on April 19, 2024.
We believe that we have significant financial flexibility to adapt to changing conditions and opportunities. Currently, market rates of interest for our debt, and market coupon rates for our preferred equity, are at historically low levels and we have significant access to these sources of capital. On November 17, 2020, we issued $170.0 million in preferred securities at a 3.900% coupon rate and on January 19, 2021 we issued $500.0 million of unsecured senior notes at 0.875% maturing on February 15, 2026, both representing historically low financing costs to fund our growth initiatives. Based upon our substantial current liquidity relative to our capital requirements noted below, we would not expect any potential capital market dislocations to have a material impact upon our expected capital and growth plans over the next 12 months. However, if capital market conditions were to change significantly in the long run, our access to or cost of debt and preferred equity capital could be negatively impacted and potentially affect future investment activities.
Liquidity and Capital Resource Analysis: We believe that our net cash provided by our operating activities will continue to be sufficient to enable us to meet our ongoing requirements for principal payments on debt, maintenance capital expenditures and distributions to our shareholders for the foreseeable future.
As of December 31, 2020, we expect capital resources over the next year of approximately $1.5 billion, which exceeds our currently identified capital needs of approximately $1.3 billion. Our expected capital resources include: (i) $257.6 million of cash as of December 31, 2020, (ii) $475.7 million of available borrowing capacity on our revolving line of credit, (iii) $496.2 million in net proceeds from the public issuance of Senior Note due 2026 on January 14, 2021, and (iv) approximately $250 million to $300 million of expected retained operating cash flow in 2021. Retained operating cash flow represents our expected cash flow provided by operating activities, less shareholder distributions and capital expenditures.
Our currently identified capital needs consist primarily of (i) $580.1 million in property acquisitions currently under contract, (ii) $373.3 million of remaining spending on our current development pipeline, which will be incurred primarily in the next 18 to 24 months and (iii) $300 million for the redemption of our Series B Preferred Shares. We have no substantial principal payments on debt until 2022. We expect our capital needs to increase over the next year as we add projects to our development pipeline and acquire additional properties. Additional potential capital needs could result from various activities including the redemption of outstanding preferred securities, repurchases of common stock, or mergers and acquisition activities; however, there can be no assurance of any such activities transpiring in the near or longer term.
To the extent our retained operating cash flow, cash on hand, and line of credit are insufficient to fund our activities, we believe we have a variety of possibilities to raise additional capital including issuing common or preferred securities, issuing debt, or entering into joint venture arrangements to acquire or develop facilities.
Required Debt Repayments: As of December 31, 2020, the principal outstanding on our debt totaled approximately $2.6 billion, consisting of $25.2 million of secured debt, $1.0 billion of Euro-denominated unsecured debt and $1.5 billion of U.S. Dollar denominated unsecured debt. Approximate principal maturities are as follows (amounts in thousands):
$
1,851
502,574
19,219
122,770
296,952
Thereafter
1,614,563
$
2,557,929
On January 19, 2021, we completed a public offering of $500 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes bearing interest at an annual rate of 0.875% and maturing on February 15, 2026.
Our debt is well-laddered and we have no material debt maturities until September 2022.
Capital Expenditure Requirements: Capital expenditures include general maintenance, major repairs or replacements to elements of our facilities to keep our facilities in good operating condition and maintain their visual appeal. Capital expenditures do not include costs relating to the development of new facilities or redevelopment of existing facilities to increase their available rentable square footage.
Capital expenditures totaled $163.8 million in 2020, and are expected to approximate $250.0 million in 2021. In addition to standard capital repairs of building elements reaching the end of their useful lives, our capital expenditures in recent years have included incremental expenditures to enhance the competitive position of certain of our facilities relative to local competitors pursuant to a multi-year program. Such investments include development of more pronounced, attractive, and clearly identifiable color schemes and signage, upgrades to the configuration and layout of the offices and other customer zones to improve the customer experience. In addition, we have made investments in LED lighting and the installation of solar panels.
We believe that these incremental investments improve customer satisfaction, the attractiveness and competitiveness of our facilities to new and existing customers and, in the case of LED lighting and solar panels, reduce operating costs. We expect to experience capital expenditures of $250 million to $300 million per year over the next several years.
Requirement to Pay Distributions: For all periods presented herein, we have elected to be treated as a REIT, as defined in the Code. For each taxable year in which we qualify for taxation as a REIT, we will not be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our “REIT taxable income” (generally, taxable income subject to specified adjustments, including a deduction for dividends paid and excluding our net capital gain) that is distributed to our shareholders. We believe we have met these requirements in all periods presented herein, and we expect to continue to qualify as a REIT.
On February 16, 2021, our Board declared a regular common quarterly dividend of $2.00 per common share totaling approximately $350 million, which will be paid at the end of March 2021. Our consistent, long-term dividend policy has been to distribute only our taxable income. Future quarterly distributions with respect to the common shares will continue to be determined based upon our REIT distribution requirements after taking into consideration distributions to the preferred shareholders and will be funded with cash flows from operating activities.
We estimate the annual distribution requirements with respect to our Preferred Shares outstanding at December 31, 2020, excluding the Series B Preferred Shares which were redeemed on January 20, 2021 to be approximately $180.7 million per year.
We estimate we will pay approximately $5.6 million per year in distributions to noncontrolling interests outstanding at December 31, 2020.
Real Estate Investment Activities: We continue to seek to acquire additional self-storage facilities from third parties. Subsequent to December 31, 2020, we acquired or were under contract to acquire 40 self-storage facilities for a total purchase price of $580.1 million. Twelve of these properties are under construction and expected to close as they are completed in 2021.
We are actively seeking to acquire additional facilities. However, future acquisition volume will depend upon whether additional owners will be motivated to market their facilities, which will in turn depend upon factors such as economic conditions and the level of seller confidence.
As of December 31, 2020, we had development and expansion projects at a total cost of approximately $561.4 million. Costs incurred through December 31, 2020 were $188.1 million, with the remaining cost to complete of $373.3 million expected to be incurred primarily in the next 18 to 24 months. Some of these projects are subject to contingencies such as entitlement approval. We expect to continue to seek to add projects to maintain and increase
our robust pipeline. Our ability to do so continues to be challenged by various constraints such as difficulty in finding projects that meet our risk-adjusted yield expectations, and challenges in obtaining building permits for self-storage facilities in certain municipalities.
Redemption of Preferred Securities: Historically, we have taken advantage of refinancing higher coupon preferred securities with lower coupon preferred securities. In the future, we may also elect to finance the redemption of preferred securities with proceeds from the issuance of debt. As of February 24, 2021, we have no series of preferred securities that are eligible for redemption, at our option and with 30 days’ notice. See Note 8 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements for the redemption dates of all of our series of preferred shares. Redemption of such preferred shares will depend upon many factors, including the rate at which we could issue replacement preferred securities. None of our preferred securities are redeemable at the option of the holders.
Repurchases of Common Shares: Our Board has authorized management to repurchase up to 35,000,000 of our common shares on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. During 2020, we did not repurchase any of our common shares. From the inception of the repurchase program through February 24, 2021, we have repurchased a total of 23,721,916 common shares at an aggregate cost of approximately $679.1 million. Future levels of common share repurchases will be dependent upon our available capital, investment alternatives and the trading price of our common shares.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
ITEM 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
To limit our exposure to market risk, we are capitalized primarily with preferred and common equity. Our preferred shares are redeemable at our option generally five years after issuance, but the holder has no redemption option. Our debt is our only market-risk sensitive portion of our capital structure, which totals approximately $2.5 billion and represents 29.7% of the book value of our equity at December 31, 2020.
We have foreign currency exposure at December 31, 2020 related to (i) our investment in Shurgard, with a book value of $341.1 million, and a fair value of $1.4 billion based upon the closing price of Shurgard’s stock on December 31, 2020, and (ii) €842.0 million ($1.0 billion) of Euro-denominated unsecured notes payable.
The fair value of our fixed rate debt at December 31, 2020 is approximately $2.8 billion. The table below summarizes the annual maturities of our fixed rate debt, which had a weighted average effective rate of 2.4% at December 31, 2020. See Note 6 to our December 31, 2020 financial statements for further information regarding our fixed rate debt (amounts in thousands).
Thereafter
Total
Fixed rate debt
$
1,851
$
502,574
$
19,219
$
122,770
$
296,952
$
1,614,563
$
2,557,929
‎

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
ITEM 9A. Controls and Procedures
Conclusion Regarding the Effectiveness of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in reports we file and submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in accordance with SEC guidelines and that such information is communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure based on the definition of "disclosure controls and procedures" in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives and management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures in reaching that level of reasonable assurance. We also have investments in certain unconsolidated real estate entities and because we do not control these entities, our disclosure controls and procedures with respect to such entities are substantially more limited than those we maintain with respect to our consolidated subsidiaries.
As of December 31, 2020, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act). Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2020, at a reasonable assurance level.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee on Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 Framework). Based on our evaluation under the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020.
The effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, has been audited by Ernst & Young LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm. Ernst & Young LLP’s report on our internal control over financial reporting appears below.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There have not been any changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the fourth quarter of 2020 to which this report relates that have materially affected, or are reasonable likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
‎
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of Public Storage
Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited Public Storage’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, Public Storage (the Company) maintained, in all material aspects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on the COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020 and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a) and our report dated February 24, 2021 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
Los Angeles, California
February 24, 2021
‎

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 9B.Other Information
None.
‎
PART III

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ITEM 10.Trustees, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The following is a biographical summary of the current executive officers of the Company:
Joseph D. Russell, Jr., age 61, has served as Chief Executive Officer since January 1, 2019, and as President since July 2016. Prior to joining Public Storage, Mr. Russell was President and Chief Executive Officer of PS Business Parks, Inc. from August 2002 to July 2016. Mr. Russell has also served as a trustee of Public Storage since January 1, 2019, and as a director of PS Business Parks, Inc. since August 2003.
H. Thomas Boyle, age 38, has served as Chief Financial Officer since January 1, 2019, and was previously Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Operations since joining the Company in November 2016. Prior to joining Public Storage, Mr. Boyle served in roles of increasing responsibilities with Morgan Stanley since 2005, from analyst to his last role as Executive Director, Equity and Debt Capital Markets.
Nathaniel A. Vitan, age 47, has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since April 20, 2019, and was Vice President and Chief Counsel-Litigation and Operations since joining the Company in June 2016. Prior to joining Public Storage, Mr. Vitan was Assistant General Counsel for Altria Client Services, Inc. and served as a Trial Practice and Appellate Litigation Attorney at Latham & Watkins LLP.
Natalia Johnson, age 43, has served as the Chief Administrative Officer since August 4, 2020. Previously, Ms. Johnson served as Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer from April 25, 2018 to August 4, 2020 and Senior Vice President of Human Resources from July 2016 to April 2018. Prior to joining Public Storage, Ms. Johnson held a variety of senior management positions at Bank of America, including Chief Operating Officer for Mortgage Technology and Human Resources Executive for the Mortgage Business and worked for Coca-Cola Andina and San Cristόbal Insurance.
Other information required by this item is hereby incorporated by reference to the material appearing in the Notice and Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
ITEM 11.Executive Compensation
The information required by this item is hereby incorporated by reference to the material appearing in the Notice and Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act.
‎

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
ITEM 12.Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters
The following table sets forth information as of December 31, 2020 on the Company’s equity compensation plans:
Number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights
Weighted average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights
Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders (a)
3,513,955 (b)
$210.59 (d)
343,648
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders (c)
-
-
-
a)The Company’s stock option and stock incentive plans are described more fully in Note 10 to the December 31, 2020 financial statements. All plans were approved by the Company’s shareholders.
b)Includes 552,788 restricted share units that, if and when vested, will be settled in common shares of the Company on a one for one basis.
c)There are no securities available for future issuance or currently outstanding under plans not approved by the Company’s shareholders as of December 31, 2020.
d)Represents the average exercise price of 2,961,167 stock options outstanding at December 31, 2020. We also have 552,788 restricted share units outstanding at December 31, 2020 that vest for no consideration.
Other information required by this item is hereby incorporated by reference to the material appearing in the Notice and Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
ITEM 13.Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Trustee Independence
The information required by this item is hereby incorporated by reference to the material appearing in the Notice and Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
ITEM 14.Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The information required by this item is hereby incorporated by reference to the material appearing in the Notice and Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act of 1934.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
ITEM 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules
a.
1.
Financial Statements
The financial statements listed in the accompanying Index to Financial Statements and Schedules hereof are filed as part of this report.
2.
Financial Statement Schedules
The financial statements schedules listed in the accompanying Index to Financial Statements and Schedules are filed as part of this report.
3.
Exhibits
See Index to Exhibits contained herein.
b.
Exhibits:
See Index to Exhibits contained herein.
c.
Financial Statement Schedules
Not applicable.
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PUBLIC STORAGE
INDEX TO EXHIBITS (1)
(Items 15(a)(3) and 15(c))
3.1
Articles of Amendment and Restatement of Declaration of Trust of Public Storage, a Maryland real estate investment trust, filed with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation on May 4, 2018. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated May 8, 2018 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.2
Amended and Restated Bylaws of Public Storage, a Maryland real estate investment trust, dated May 4, 2018. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated May 8, 2018 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.3
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 5.400% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series B. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated January 12, 2016 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.4
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 5.125% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series C. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated May 10, 2016 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.5
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.950% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series D. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated July 13, 2016 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.6
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.900% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series E. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated October 6, 2016 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.7
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 5.150% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series F. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated May 23, 2017 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.8
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 5.050% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series G. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated July 31, 2017 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.9
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 5.600% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series H. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated February 28, 2019 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.10
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.875% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series I. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated September 5, 2019 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.11
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.700% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series J. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated November 5, 2019 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.12
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.750% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series K. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated December 11, 2019 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.13
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.625% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series L. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated June 8, 2020 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.14
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 4.125 % Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series M. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated August 11, 2020 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.15
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 3.875% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series N. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated September 29, 2020 and incorporated by reference herein.
3.16
Articles Supplementary for Public Storage 3.900% Cumulative Preferred Shares, Series O. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated November 9, 2020 and incorporated by reference herein.
4.1
Master Deposit Agreement, dated as of May 31, 2007. Filed with the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated June 6, 2007 and incorporated by reference herein.
4.2
Description of Registrant’s Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Filed herewith.
10.1
Agreement of Limited Partnership of PS Business Parks, L.P. Filed with PS Business Parks, Inc.’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 1998 (SEC File No. 001-10709) and incorporated herein by reference.
10.2
Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership of Storage Trust Properties, L.P. (March 12, 1999). Filed with PSI’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 1999 (SEC File No. 001-0839) and incorporated herein by reference.
10.3
Second Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated April 19, 2019, by and among Public Storage, the lenders party thereto, Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as administrative agent, Wells Fargo Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporation, as joint lead arrangers and as joint bookrunners, Bank of America, N.A., as syndication agent, and Citibank, N.A., as documentation agent. Filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated April 19, 2019 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.4*
Form of 2007 Plan Restricted Stock Unit Agreement. Filed as Exhibit 10.11 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.5*
Form of 2007 Plan Restricted Stock Unit Agreement - deferral of receipt of shares. Filed as Exhibit 10.12 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.6*
Form of 2007 Plan Stock Option Agreement. Filed as Exhibit 10.13 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.7*
Form of 2007 Plan Trustee Stock Option Agreement. Filed as Exhibit 10.14 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.8*
Form of 2016 Plan Restricted Stock Unit Agreement - deferral of receipt of shares. Filed as Exhibit 10.16 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.9*
Form of 2016 Plan Trustee Non-Qualified Stock Option Agreement. Filed as Exhibit 10.18 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.10
Form of Trustee and Officer Indemnification Agreement. Filed as Exhibit 10.19 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.11*
Public Storage 2007 Equity and Performance-Based Incentive Compensation Plan, as Amended. Filed with Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated May 1, 2014 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.12*
Public Storage 2016 Equity and Performance-Based Incentive Compensation Plan. Filed as Appendix A to the Company’s 2016 Proxy Statement dated March 16, 2016 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.13
Note Purchase Agreement, dated as of November 3, 2015, by and among Public Storage and the signatories thereto. Filed with Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated November 3, 2015 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.14
Note Purchase Agreement, dated as of April 12, 2016, by and among Public Storage and the signatories thereto. Filed with Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated April 12, 2016 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.15
Indenture, dated as of September 18, 2017, between Public Storage and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee. Filed as Exhibit 4.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated September 18, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.16
First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of September 18, 2017, between Public Storage and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee, including the form of Global Note representing the 2022 Notes and the form of Global Note representing the 2027 Notes. Filed as Exhibit 4.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated September 18, 2017 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.17
Second Supplemental Indenture, dated as of April 12, 2019, between Public Storage and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee, including the form of Global Note representing the 2029 Notes. Filed as Exhibit 4.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated April 12, 2019 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.18
Third Supplemental Indenture, dated as of January 24, 2020, between Public Storage and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee. Filed as Exhibit 4.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated January 24, 2020 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.19
Fourth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of January 19, 2021, between Public Storage and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee. Filed as Exhibit 4.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated January 14, 2021 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.20
Amendment to Amended Agreement of Limited Partnership of PS Business Parks, L.P. to Authorize Special Allocations, dated as of January 1, 2017. Filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018 (SEC File No. 001-33519) and incorporated herein by reference.
10.21*
Form of 2016 Plan Restricted Stock Unit Agreement - deferral of receipt of shares (2018). Filed as Exhibit 10.26 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.22*
Form of 2016 Plan Trustee Deferred Stock Unit Agreement (2018). Filed as Exhibit 10.29 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.23*
Form of 2016 Plan Executive Restricted Stock Unit Agreement (2018). Filed as Exhibit 10.30 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.24*
Form of 2016 Employee Stock Unit Agreement (2020). Filed as Exhibit 10.2 to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.25*
Form of 2016 Plan Employee Non-Qualified Stock Option Agreement (2020). Filed as Exhibit 10.4 to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and incorporated herein by reference.
10.26*
Form of 2016 Plan Performance-Based Non-Qualified Stock Option Agreement (2020). Filed as Exhibit 10.5 to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and incorporated herein by reference.
Listing of Subsidiaries. Filed herewith.
23.1
Consent of Ernst & Young LLP. Filed herewith.
31.1
Rule 13a - 14(a) Certification. Filed herewith.
31.2
Rule 13a - 14(a) Certification. Filed herewith.
Section 1350 Certifications. Filed herewith.
101 .INS
Inline XBRL Instance Document. Filed herewith.
101 .SCH
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema. Filed herewith.
101 .CAL
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase. Filed herewith.
101 .DEF
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase. Filed herewith.
101 .LAB
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase. Filed herewith.
101 .PRE
Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Link. Filed herewith.
Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101)
_ (1)
SEC File No. 001-33519 unless otherwise indicated.
*
Denotes management compensatory plan agreement or arrangement.
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