"The concept of building our first storage facility came to us 15 years ago partly as an investment opportunity but mostly as an effort to fill a vacant parcel of land behind an apartment community we owned" says Randy Witt, one of the general partners of Interstate U-Stor. "My father and I had done several projects together; spec homes, a medical office building and the apartment property which backed up to I-395 as it ran through Reno, Nevada. We generally had an agreement every time we partnered on a project that he would oversee the construction, I would take care of the ongoing management and in time we would flip it."

Truly, the storage concept was really very much of an afterthought for the partnership as the lot on which the storage facility currently rests was not just vacant, it was covered with large mounds of dirt; leavings from the construction of the Interstate some 20 years prior. "The lot was an attractive nuisance as far as we were concerned", says Mr. Witt.

It seems that the neighborhood toughs would use the lot as a source of stones to throw at local homes, the apartment community, and at passing cars as well. It did serve other purposes such as a place for the neighborhood hooligans to hang out, an unending source of dust when the winds kicked up, a shortcut between local streets, and a place for dumping unwanted trash (particularly beer bottles). All-in-all, it seems that the community at large was pretty happy to see the lot developed although they were concerned that if it was covered with storage units it would just introduce a different source of crime to the area.

And that is where QuikStor came in. Mr. Witt walked through our door over 11 years ago when we were still selling our DOS management system and developing our access control systems and wireless alarm technologies. Mr. Witt’s 9th Street location was the first facility to use the patented QuikStor wireless unit alarm system which he still uses today.

From the get-go Quikstor worked hand in hand with Interstate U-Stor to improve the product they purchased. "They gave us regular software updates, and I gave them constant (maybe even incessant) feedback", says Mr. Witt. The proof of the success of this relationship and others like it is that Quikstor has grown to be a major player in the field of storage software and security.

"We still run that original gate system at our 9th Street location although we have updated our keypads once or twice," observes Mr. Witt. "The system still works as an overlay on an old Dell computer running Windows 95 and is rock-solid. It is still fully compatible with my accounting systems running XP and the latest version of Express. My first generation gate system still also uses the original style of sensors we purchased from Quikstor as well. Well over 95% of my 750 sensors are original and still in service after 14 years."

Once involved with storage it seems the partners never looked back and a second facility was soon to follow. "In storage, you have no late-night calls with kitchen-fires, few tenant disputes, no plumbing problems to speak of and the heating and air conditioning issues are next to nonexistent. All the headaches you have with apartments and offices just don’t exist in storage if you run your facilities with some minimal degree of care."


Storage is really quite simple to manage if you do just a few basic things:

1. Find a manager who is honest, can stick to policy, and can sell. Once you find them, treat them well.
2. Tie their pay-package to their performance so that if they make you more money, they make significantly more money as well.
3. Listen and follow through with their suggestions for property improvements even if sometimes they cost a bit more than you want to spend.
4. Insist that the phone is answered by a cheerful employee within two rings. This employee should be on-site and one who knows the facility and the tenants by name.
5. Study your accounting reports carefully and, most particularly, your gate activity reports. Your gate reports will tell you volumes about problem tenants and employees BEFORE things get out of hand.

Beyond that, they believe that if they find the right land, at least 5 acres for a one-story facility, at a good price, they are home-free. "It just pays to build a larger facility when one considers that it takes about as much work to build and operate a facility of 50,000 feet as it does one of 100,000 feet or more.

It also seems that competition does not really enter into their equation when it comes to building facilities. "We operate in a location that is growing, our facilities are beautifully maintained and clean, we provide excellent service, and we do it at a fair price" says Mr. Witt. "If we take care to provide a top-of-the-line product, our customer base will both expand and stay loyal to us."