BlackRock Backs StoreLocal Duo For Self Storage Success

From left:

Andrew Work (Self Storage Association Asia), Hans Pearson (Store Local), Ben Hickey (BlackRock)

The Australian self storage market has long outgrown its basic beginnings and now boasts some of the world’s most sophisticated operators. This sophisticated asset class now attracts the world's most professional fund managers. The recent A$1bn partnership between Store Local, an entrepreneurial operator, and BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, marks a defining moment in the industry’s maturation.

Hans Pearson, CEO of Store Local, and Ben Hickey of BlackRock, took the stage at Self Storage Expo 2026 to explain how a Melbourne developer and a global titan found common ground through shared aspirations.

For Mr Pearson, finding capital was a strategic pivot needed to fuel growth. The choice was BlackRock, a partner capable of funding investments in data, brand and scale

For BlackRock, the attraction was operational expertise and market insight. Store Local’s evolution from a single 2006 land parcel to the country's fourth-largest operator proved its management team could execute at scale while continuing to innovate in a competitive market.

"These two good looking roosters... That's where we think our competitive advantage is," Mr Hickey noted of the StoreLocal leadership, Hans Pearson and StoreLocal COO and Co-founder Mark Grieg. "We want to find a business that's innovative, that's thinking differently, that we can support."

The shift toward self storage reflects an institutional migration away from underperforming commercial sectors towards a focus on the ability to generate differentiated returns through operational excellence and stable, resilient cashflows. "Cashflow is king," says Mr Hickey. "We do not want beta. We do not want market returns. We need to find a competitive advantage." Despite the maturity of the Australian market, he remains optimistic: "You can see there very clearly, that we think this movement into sectors like self storage is absolutely in the first innings."

Success in "Store Local 3.0" depends on "operational alpha." As Mr Hickey observes, "Operational alpha is critical... technology digitisation is one of the big themes of the next 10 years." This technical edge is supported by academic rigour. Mr Pearson highlighted his in-house talent: "We've had a full-time in-house data scientist for over five years. The wonderful (Dr) Renee (Lin) just got her PhD two years ago."

Financial discipline serves as the business’s "northstar." Mr Pearson explained: "Our main focus and our northstar as a business is our net operating income percentage margin... A strong net operating income means you have a margin of safety for market cycles... And the ability to reinvest in best practice." He is equally adamant about the human element: "You've got to run a business. You've got to run it well. You've got to have a high operating margin and you've got to fight in your micro markets every day for customers and you've got to look after those customers and take and be ultimately customer obsessed."

Despite the institutional scale, the industry retains a personal core. "This really is life self storage," concludes Mr Pearson. "This is how we see self storage. It's personal. We take it extremely personally. As do all the founders and all the operators and the team members." With the partnership secured, the focus shifts to execution. "Our systems are in place and we're aggressively pursuing our business plan."