Cokaliong opens first rental storage facility

CEBU, Philippines — The first self-storage facility in Cebu dubbed as Storage Town officially opened over a thousand units of rental storage spaces.

Owned and managed by Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc., scion Chase Cokaliong and his siblings, the Storage Town already rented close to a hundred units prior to its opening yesterday.

In an interview with Cokaliong, he said that since the facility is so far one-of-its-kind in Cebu, it gained a strong interest from diverse client profile, from travelers, residential owners (who need to store seasonal things in a room), restaurants, corporations, out-of-town students, and collectors, among others.

Equipped with high-tech amenities, Cokaliong said Storage Town provides an initial of 1, 085 storage units, with measurements ranging from as small as 1.8 square meters to 90 square meters, with a minimum rental contract of one month.

The smallest space is priced at P999 per month, while the biggest unit could fetch a rental rate of P50, 000 a month.

Because this kind of facility is quite new in the market, Cokaliong has inked partnership deal with real estate and rental broker Filipino Homes to manage some of the units.

“Filipino Homes is the biggest realty brokerage firm in the Philippines, we are partnering with them,” he said.

Located on Sacris Road, Cabancalan, Mandaue City, the 4,692 square meters three-storey building property offers 10,00 square meters of leasable space.

The self-storage industry has been around in the 1960s in the United States.

As of 2018, there are over 54,000 self-storage facilities in the US alone, which translates to over 200 million square meters of leasable space. From there, many cities around the world continue to develop, self-storage has been gaining traction in other countries, specifically in Asia.

He said this business, which is still unexplored in this side of the country is seen to gain trajectory demand here, as people are embracing the condominium living lifestyle, and the rising number of expats in Cebu.

“Space is becoming a premium, and we hope to address that need by providing storage that’s secure and convenient for our customers,” he said.