California investors pay $22.3 million for Firehouse Self-Storage

LOVELAND — A group of investors in California, led by FollettUSA in Sacramento, has paid $22,250,000 for Firehouse Self Storage in south Loveland.

The storage facility at 2600 S. Lincoln Ave., which is also U.S. Highway 287, was acquired from the Burton Family of Loveland.

Firehouse Self Storage has 1,235 storage units on about 24 acres of land. It is the biggest single self-storage facility in Colorado, said Chris Burton, who handled the deal on behalf of the family — his mother and father Jan and Don Burton, and his wife, Barbi.

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Chris and Barbi Burton operated the self-storage facility for the past five years.

Chris Burton said the family wasn’t listing the property for sale but was approached by three national self-storage companies that bid on the site.

FollettUSA was formed in 1989 to own and manage upscale modular- and mobile-home parks. It began buying and operating storage facilities in 2003.

FollettUSA used the entity Firehouse SS Investors LLC in the deal for the self-storage facility in Loveland. Other investment groups involved in the purchase used entity names of Richmond-Firehouse No. 1 LLC and Richmond-Firehouse No. 2 LLC, both based in Alamo, Calif., and Razorback-Firehouse No. 1 and Razorback-Firehouse No. 2, both based in Orinda, Calif., according to public records.

FollettUSA in 2016 acquired the Sunset Mobile Home Park in Loveland and the Sunflower Adult Active Community in Fort Collins. In 2017, it acquired the St. Vrain Village mobile-home park in Longmont. It owns or operates about 30 communities in 10 states and about a dozen self-storage facilities, mostly in California.

The Burtons have been planning another Firehouse Self Storage in Longmont near the Vance Brand Airport.

They purchased 43 acres of vacant land on the east side of Airport Road intersected by Rogers Road for $1 million in January 2017. Burton said seven acres of the property will be donated to the city of Longmont for a dog park.

The self-storage facility will be built in phases with construction for the first phase on nine acres expected to begin in July, Burton said. A second phase of storage units will be constructed on another seven acres.

Burton said the facility in Longmont will have the firehouse theme that was the Loveland property’s trademark, with American flags flying from extended fire-truck ladders at the entrance, and firefighting memorabilia decorating the interior of the main office.

FollettUSA acquired five of the seven fire trucks that were at the site in Loveland, leaving the Burtons a couple for Longmont.

“We will have a fire truck inside the main office, and we’ve still got a lot of memorabilia we can use to decorate the place.”