SmartStop to Buy Strategic Storage Canada in $54 Million Deal
The self-storage REIT said the 25 Class A properties would make it Canada's third-largest operator and add Halifax and Quebec City to its Canadian footprint.
SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (SMA) agreed to acquire Strategic Storage Canada, LP for approximately $54 million in a mixed transaction, a purchase the company said would make it Canada's third-largest self-storage operator with 70 operating properties.
The deal expands SmartStop's existing Canadian presence in Vancouver, British Columbia, Calgary, Alberta, and the Greater Toronto Area, and establishes a new presence in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Quebec City, Quebec. SmartStop anticipates completing the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer H. Michael Schwartz said the company is “significantly expanding our footprint in Canada, adding high-quality assets on-balance sheet in core U.S. markets, and growing a new programmatic investment relationship with an exceptionally high-quality sponsor, all while funding this growth on a leverage-neutral basis.”
He said the addition of 25 Class A self-storage properties increases clustering and operating efficiencies in many of SmartStop's core markets. The company said it expects the transactions and associated financing to be materially accretive to 2027 funds from operations, as adjusted per share, on an approximately leverage-neutral basis.
Schwartz said SmartStop believes the Strategic Storage Canada portfolio will see meaningful embedded NOI upside as the properties lease up over the coming years, with an anticipated stabilized yield of over 6%.
The purchase continues a Canadian build that has run through prior Strategic Storage Trust mergers. In 2021, SmartStop closed a merger with SST IV that included 24 self-storage facilities and a 50% equity interest in six unconsolidated ventures in the Greater Toronto Area. In 2022, it closed the SSGT II merger, adding 10 wholly owned facilities and a 50% interest in three unconsolidated GTA ventures. As of June 30, 2026, the company reported 460 owned and managed properties and about 35.4 million owned and managed square feet, and described itself as one of the largest operators in the Greater Toronto Area.
In the second quarter of 2026, SmartStop posted a 17.6% year-over-year increase in funds from operations as adjusted per share and same-store operating margins of 67.3%, up 150 basis points from a year earlier. It deployed more than $46 million that quarter into accretive on-balance-sheet acquisitions and bridge capital investments. In June, it closed a $29.7 million purchase of three Spartanburg, South Carolina, facilities from indirect DST subsidiaries of SSGT III.
SmartStop said it will fund the Strategic Storage Canada purchase on a leverage-neutral basis and pointed to the programmatic relationship with the sponsor as a source of future Canadian assets as the company continues to grow its Canadian platform.