For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined by Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes  ☒   No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes  ☐   No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. Yes  ☐    No  ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common shares of beneficial interest of National Storage Affiliates Trust held by non-affiliates of National Storage Affiliates Trust was approximately $1.0 billion as of June 30, 2017. As of February 26, 2018, 50,329,814 common shares of beneficial interest, $0.01 par value per share, were outstanding.

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust organized in the state of Maryland on May 16, 2013. We have elected and we believe that we have qualified to be taxed as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 2015. We serve as the sole general partner of our operating partnership subsidiary, NSA OP, LP (our "operating partnership"), a Delaware limited partnership formed on February 13, 2013 to conduct our business, which is focused on the ownership, operation, and acquisition of self storage properties located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas ("MSAs") throughout the United States. As of December 31, 2017, we held ownership interests in and operated a geographically diversified portfolio of 515 self storage properties, located in 29 states, comprising approximately 32.1 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 255,000 storage units. According to the 2018 Self-Storage Almanac, we are the sixth largest owner and operator of self storage properties in the United States based on number of properties, self storage units, and rentable square footage. We completed our initial public offering in the second quarter 2015 and our common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NSA."

The Company had eight PROs as of December 31, 2017: SecurCare Self Storage, Inc. and its controlled affiliates ("SecurCare"), Kevin Howard Real Estate Inc., d/b/a Northwest Self Storage and its controlled affiliates ("Northwest"), Optivest Properties LLC and its controlled affiliates ("Optivest"), Guardian Storage Centers LLC and its controlled affiliates ("Guardian"), Move It Self Storage and its controlled affiliates ("Move It"), Arizona Mini Storage Management Company d/b/a Storage Solutions and its controlled affiliates ("Storage Solutions"), Hide-Away Storage Services, Inc. and its controlled affiliates ("Hide-Away") and an affiliate of Shader Brothers Corporation d/b/a Personal Mini Storage ("Personal Mini"). To capitalize on their recognized and established local brands, our PROs continue to function as property managers for their managed portfolios under their existing brands (which include various brands in addition to those discussed below). Over the long-run, we may seek to brand or co-brand each location as part of NSA.

We seek to own properties that are well located in high quality sub-markets with highly accessible street access and attractive supply and demand characteristics, providing our properties with strong and stable cash flows that are less sensitive to the fluctuations of the general economy. Many of these markets have multiple barriers to entry against increased supply, including zoning restrictions against new construction and new construction costs that we believe are higher than our properties' fair market value. As of December 31, 2017, we owned a geographically diversified portfolio of 444 self storage properties, located in 26 states, comprising approximately 27.2 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 215,000 storage units. Of these properties, 245 were acquired by us from our PROs and 199 were acquired by us from third-party sellers. A complete listing of, and additional information about, our self storage properties is included in Item 2 of this report. 

During the year ended December 31, 2017, we acquired 65 consolidated self storage properties, of which 10 were acquired by us from our PROs and 55 were acquired by us from third-party sellers. The following is a summary of our 2017 consolidated acquisition activity (dollars in thousands):

During the year ended December 31, 2017, we sold three self storage properties to unrelated third parties and excess land parcels adjacent to our self storage properties for $17.8 million. The self storage properties comprised approximately 0.2 million rentable square feet configured in approximately 1,200 storage units.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we acquired 107 consolidated self storage properties, of which 23 were acquired by us from our PROs and 84 were acquired by us from third-party sellers. The following is a summary of our 2016 consolidated acquisition activity (dollars in thousands):

As of December 31, 2017, our unconsolidated real estate venture (the "Joint Venture") owned and operated a portfolio of 71 properties containing approximately 4.9 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 39,000 storage units and located across 13 states. A listing of, and additional information about, the Joint Venture properties is included in Item 2 of this report. 

During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Joint Venture acquired five self storage properties located in California and Delaware with an aggregate fair value of $59.3 million, comprising approximately 0.4 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 3,500 storage units.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we entered into an agreement to form the Joint Venture with a state pension fund (the "JV Investor") advised by Heitman Capital Management LLC to acquire and operate the 66-property "iStorage" facilities portfolio (the "JV Portfolio"). On October 4, 2016, the Joint Venture completed its acquisition of the JV Portfolio. The following is a summary of the properties acquired in the JV Portfolio (dollars in thousands):

On October 4, 2016, the Company, through certain newly formed subsidiaries, acquired the iStorage property management platform related to the JV Portfolio, including a property management company, a captive insurance company, and related intellectual property for $20.0 million.

High Quality Properties in Key Growth Markets.    We held ownership interests in and operated a geographically diversified portfolio of 515 self storage properties, located in 29 states, comprising approximately 32.1 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 255,000 storage units, as of December 31, 2017. Over 75% of our consolidated portfolio is located in the top 100 MSAs, based on our 2017 net operating income ("NOI"). We believe that these properties are primarily located in high quality growth markets that have attractive supply and demand characteristics and are less sensitive to the fluctuations of the general economy. Many of these markets have multiple barriers to entry against increased supply, including zoning restrictions against new construction and new construction costs that we believe are higher than our properties' fair market value. Furthermore, we believe that our significant size and the overall geographic diversification of our portfolio reduces risks associated with specific local or regional economic downturns or natural disasters.

Differentiated, Growth-Oriented Strategy Focused on Established Operators.    We are a self storage REIT with a unique structure that supports our differentiated external growth strategy. Our structure appeals to operators who are looking for access to growth capital while maintaining an economic stake in the self storage properties that each manages on the Company's behalf. These attributes entice operators to join the Company rather than sell their properties for cash consideration. Our strategy is to attract operators who are confident in the future performance of their properties and desire to participate in the growth of the Company. We are focused on recruiting established operators across the United States with a history of efficient property management and a track record of successful acquisitions. Our structure and differentiated strategy have enabled us to build a substantial captive pipeline from existing operators as well as potentially create external growth from the recruitment of additional PROs.

Integrated Platform Utilizing Advanced Technology for Enhanced Operational Performance and Best Practices.    Our national platform allows us to capture cost savings through integration and centralization, thereby eliminating redundancies and utilizing economies of scale across the property management platforms of our PROs. As compared to a stand-alone operator, our national platform has greater access to lower-cost capital, reduced Internet marketing costs per customer lead, discounted property insurance expense, and reduced overhead costs. In addition, the Company has sufficient scale for various centralized functions, including financial reporting, the operation of two call centers, expanding cell tower leasing, a national credit card processing program, marketing, information technology, legal support, and capital market functions, to achieve substantial cost savings over smaller, individual operators.

Aligned Incentive Structure with Shareholder Downside Protection.    Our structure promotes operator accountability as subordinated performance units issued to our PROs in exchange for the contribution of their properties are entitled to distributions only after those properties satisfy minimum performance thresholds. In the event of a material reduction in operating cash flow, distributions on our subordinated performance units will be reduced before or disproportionately to distributions on our common shares held by our common shareholders. In addition, we expect our PROs will generally co-invest subordinated equity in the form of subordinated performance units in each acquisition that they source from a third-party seller, and the value of these subordinated performance units will fluctuate with the performance of their managed portfolios. Therefore, our PROs are incentivized to select acquisitions that are expected to exceed minimum performance thresholds, thereby increasing the value of their subordinated equity stake. We expect that our shareholders will benefit from the higher levels of property performance that our PROs are incentivized to deliver.

Maximize Property Level Cash Flow.    We strive to maximize the cash flows at our properties by leveraging the economies of scale provided by our national platform, including through the implementation of new ideas derived from our Technology and Best Practices Group. We believe that our unique PRO structure, centralized infrastructure and efficient national platform will enable us to achieve optimal market rents and occupancy, reduce operating expenses and increase the sale by our PROs of ancillary products and services, including tenant insurance, of which we receive a portion of the proceeds, truck rentals and packing supplies.

Acquire Built-in Captive Pipeline of Target Properties from Existing PROs.    We have an attractive, high quality potential acquisition pipeline (our "captive pipeline") of over 100 self storage properties valued at over $900 million that we anticipate will drive our future growth. We consider a property to be in our captive pipeline if it (i) is under a management service agreement with one of our PROs, (ii) meets our property quality criteria, and (iii) is either required to be offered to us under the applicable facilities portfolio management agreement or a PRO has a reasonable basis to believe that the controlling owner of the property intends to sell the property in the next seven years.

Access Additional Off-Market Acquisition Opportunities.    Our PROs and their "on-the-ground" personnel have established an extensive network of industry relationships and contacts in their respective markets. Through these local connections, our PROs are able to access acquisition opportunities that are not publicly marketed or sold through auctions. Our structure incentivizes our PROs to source acquisitions in their markets from third-party sellers and consolidate these properties into the Company. Other public self storage companies generally have acquisition teams located at their central offices, which in many instances are far removed from regional and local markets. We believe our operators' networks and close familiarity with the other operators in their markets provide us clear competitive advantages in identifying and selecting attractive acquisition opportunities. Our PROs have sourced 199 acquisitions from third-party sellers comprising approximately 13.9 million rentable square feet as of December 31, 2017.

Recruit Additional New PROs in Target Markets.    We intend to continue to execute on our external growth strategy through additional acquisitions and contributions from future PROs in key markets. We believe there is significant opportunity for growth through consolidation of the highly fragmented composition of the market. We believe that future operators will be attracted to our unique structure, providing them with lower cost of capital, better economies of scale, and greater operational and overhead efficiencies while preserving their existing property management platforms. We intend to add additional PROs to complement our existing geographic footprint and to achieve our goal of creating a highly diversified nationwide portfolio of properties focused in the top 100 MSAs. When considering a PRO candidate, we consider various factors, including the size of the potential PRO's portfolio, the quality and location of its properties, its market exposure, its operating expertise, its ability to grow its business, and its reputation with industry participants.

Strategic Joint Venture Arrangements.    We intend to continue to opportunistically partner with institutional funds and other institutional investors to acquire attractive portfolios utilizing a promoted return structure. We believe there is significant opportunity for continued external growth by partnering with institutional investors seeking to deploy capital in the self storage industry. We intend to leverage our property management platform to provide property and asset management services for future strategic joint ventures, generating additional operating profits and third party fee income.

As of December 31, 2017, our unsecured credit facility provided for total borrowings of $895.0 million, consisting of four components: (i) a revolving line of credit (the "Revolver") which provides for a total borrowing commitment up to $400.0 million, whereby we may borrow, repay and re-borrow amounts under the Revolver, (ii) a $235.0 million tranche A term loan facility (the "Term Loan A"), (iii) a $155.0 million tranche B term loan facility (the "Term Loan B"), and (iv) a $105.0 million tranche C term loan facility (the "Term Loan C" and together with the Revolver, the Term Loan A and the Term Loan B, the "credit facility"). As of December 31, 2017, we had the entire amounts drawn on Term Loan A, Term Loan B and Term Loan C and we had $88.5 million of outstanding borrowings under the Revolver, and the capacity to borrow an additional $306.8 million under the Revolver while remaining in compliance with the credit facility's financial covenants.

As discussed in Note 15 to the consolidated financial statements in Item 8, on January 29, 2018, we entered into an increase agreement and amendment with a syndicated group of lenders to increase the total borrowing capacity under our credit facility by adding an additional five-year tranche D term loan facility ("Term Loan D") in an aggregate outstanding principal amount of $125.0 million, for a total credit facility of over $1.0 billion. We have an expansion option under the credit facility, which, if exercised in full, would provide for a total credit facility of $1.3 billion. References to the "credit facility" include Term Loan D for all dates as of and after January 29, 2018.

We also have a credit agreement with a syndicated group of lenders for a term loan facility (the "Term Loan Facility") that is separate from the credit facility in an aggregate amount of $100.0 million, which amount is outstanding. The Term Loan Facility matures in June 2023 and we have an expansion option under the Term Loan Facility, which, if exercised in full, would provide for a total Term Loan Facility in an aggregate amount of $200.0 million.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company had 211 employees, which includes employees of the Company's property management platform but does not include persons employed by our PROs. As of December 31, 2017, our PROs, collectively, had approximately 1,000 full-time and part-time employees involved in management, operations, and reporting with respect to our self storage property portfolio.

 An investment in our common shares involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the risks discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K occurs, our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our operating results are dependent upon our ability to achieve optimal occupancy levels and rental rates at our self storage properties. Adverse economic or other conditions in the markets in which we do business, particularly in our markets in California, Oregon, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Oklahoma which accounted for approximately 27%, 14%, 10%, 9%, 6% and 6%, respectively, of our total rental and other property-related revenues for the year ended December 31, 2017, may lower our occupancy levels and limit our ability to maintain or increase rents or require us to offer rental discounts. No single customer represented a significant concentration of our 2017 revenues. The following adverse developments, among others, in the markets in which we do business may adversely affect the operating performance of our properties:

Our PROs had approximately 1,000 personnel in the management and operation of our portfolio as of December 31, 2017. The general professionalism of site managers and staff are contributing factors to a site's ability to successfully secure rentals and retain tenants. We rely on our PROs' on-site personnel to maintain clean and secure self storage properties. If our PROs are unable to successfully recruit, train and retain qualified on-site personnel, the quality of service we and our PROs strive to provide at our properties could be adversely affected, which could lead to decreased occupancy levels and reduced operating performance of our properties.

As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately $958.1 million of debt outstanding, of which approximately $88.5 million, or 9.2%, is subject to variable interest rates (excluding variable-rate debt subject to interest rate swaps). Although the credit markets have recently experienced historic lows in interest rates, if interest rates continue to rise, the interest rates on our variable-rate debt could be higher than current levels, which could increase our financing costs and decrease our cash flow and our ability to pay cash distributions to our shareholders. For example, if market rates of interest on this variable-rate debt increased by 100 basis points (excluding variable-rate debt with interest rate swaps), the increase in interest expense would decrease future earnings and cash flows by approximately $0.9 million annually.

The TCJA, which was signed into law on December 22, 2017, significantly changes U.S. federal income tax laws applicable to businesses and their owners, including REITs and their shareholders, and may lessen the relative competitive advantage of operating as a REIT rather than as a C corporation. For additional discussion, see "Recent U.S. Federal Income Tax Legislation".

Subject to applicable law and the rules of any stock exchange on which our shares may be listed or traded, our board of trustees, without common shareholder approval, may authorize us to issue additional authorized and unissued common shares and preferred shares on the terms and for the consideration it deems appropriate and may amend our declaration of trust to increase the total number of shares, or the number of shares of any class or series, that we are authorized to issue. In addition, our operating partnership may issue OP units, which are redeemable for cash or, at our option exchangeable on a one-for-one basis into common shares after an agreed period of time and certain other conditions, preferred units of limited partnership interest, which are redeemable for cash or, at our option exchangeable on a one-for-one basis into our 6.000% Series A cumulative redeemable preferred shares of beneficial interest ("Series A Preferred Shares") and subordinated performance units, which are only convertible into OP units beginning two years following the initial issuance of the applicable series and then (i) at the holder's election only upon the achievement of certain performance thresholds relating to the properties to which such subordinated performance units relate or (ii) at our election upon a retirement event of a PRO that holds such subordinated performance units or upon certain qualifying terminations. Notwithstanding the two-year lock out period on conversions of subordinated performance units into OP units, if all such subordinated performance units were convertible into OP units as of December 31, 2017, each subordinated performance unit would on average hypothetically convert into 1.46 OP units, or into an aggregate of approximately 23.3 million OP units. These amounts are based on historical financial information for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2017. The hypothetical conversion is calculated by dividing the average cash available for distribution, or CAD, per subordinated performance unit by 110% of the CAD per OP unit over the same period. We anticipate that as our CAD grows over time, the conversion ratio will also grow, including to levels that may exceed this amount. The actual number of OP units into which such subordinated performance units will become convertible may vary significantly and will depend upon the applicable conversion penalty and the actual CAD to the OP units and the actual CAD to the converted subordinated performance units in the one-year period ending prior to conversion. We have also granted registration rights to those persons who will be eligible to receive common shares issuable upon exchange of OP units issued in our formation transactions and certain contribution transactions.

As of December 31, 2017, we held ownership interests in and operated a geographically diversified portfolio of 515 properties, located in 29 states, comprising approximately 32.1 million rentable square feet, configured in approximately 255,000 storage units. Of these properties, we consolidated 444 self storage properties that contain approximately 27.2 million rentable square feet and we held a 25% ownership interest in 71 unconsolidated Joint Venture properties that contain approximately 4.9 million rentable square feet.

The following table sets forth summary information regarding our consolidated properties by state as of December 31, 2017.

The following table sets forth summary information regarding our Joint Venture properties by state as of December 31, 2017.

Common share dividends are characterized for U.S. federal income tax purposes as ordinary income, capital gains, return of capital or a combination thereof. Each year we communicate to shareholders the tax characterization of the common share dividends paid during the preceding year. Our tax return for the year ended December 31, 2017 has not yet been filed and consequently, the taxability information presented for our dividends paid in 2017 is based upon management's estimate. The following table summarizes the taxability of our dividends per common share for the year ended December 31, 2017:

During the three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company, in its capacity as general partner of its operating partnership, caused the operating partnership to issue 219,914 common shares to satisfy redemption requests from certain limited partners.

During the three months ended December 31, 2017, certain of our employees surrendered common shares owned by them to satisfy their statutory minimum federal and state tax obligations associated with the vesting of restricted shares. The table below summarizes all of our repurchases of common shares during the quarter ended December 31, 2017:

The SEC requires us to present a chart comparing the cumulative total shareholder return, assuming reinvestment of dividends, on our common shares with the cumulative total shareholder return of (i) a broad equity index and (ii) a published industry or peer group index. The following chart compares the yearly cumulative total shareholder return for our common shares with the cumulative shareholder return of companies on (i) the S&P 500 Index, (ii) the Russell 2000 and (iii) the NAREIT All Equity REIT Index as provided by NAREIT for the period beginning April 23, 2015 and ending December 31, 2017.