SmartStop Asset Management Expands Leadership Team with the Addition of Brad Watt as Executive Vice President
February 5, 2020 | SmartStop Asset Management, LLC
LADERA RANCH, Calif. – (Feb. 5, 2020) – SmartStop Asset Management, LLC, a diversified real estate company focused on student and senior housing, announced today that it has hired real estate investment veteran Brad Watt as executive vice president.
“Brad is a proven leader with an exceptional talent for promoting growth,” said H. Michael Schwartz, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of SmartStop. “He brings with him a wealth of experience, in public and private real estate offerings, and his expertise is a welcome addition to our leadership team.”
In his role as executive vice president, Brad will be responsible for managing the company’s Delaware statutory trust (“DST”) platform as well as working with the sponsor company on new product development.
Over the course of his career, Watt has participated in more than $4 billion in public and private real estate offerings, including over $1 billion in 1031 exchange structures. Prior to joining SmartStop, he held key leadership positions for some of the country’s largest non-traded REIT and DST sponsors that later listed as publicly traded companies on major stock exchanges. Watt earned a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from Grand Canyon University.
About SmartStop Asset Management, LLC
SmartStop Asset Management (“SAM”) is a diversified real estate company focused on student housing and senior housing. SAM and its affiliates have a managed portfolio that includes approximately $2.0 billion of assets. Since 2007, SAM and its affiliates have transacted approximately $6.0 billion in real estate deals. SAM’s managed portfolio includes five student housing communities with approximately 2,800 beds and 1.1 million square feet of space, as well as four senior housing communities with approximately 680 beds and 519,000 rentable square feet of space. SAM is the sponsor of Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc., a public non-traded REIT focused on student and senior housing assets. SAM is also a national sponsor of Section 1031 exchange offerings using the Delaware statutory trust structure. SAM has a track record of full-cycle REIT liquidity events, including the all-cash merger of SmartStop Self Storage, Inc. (f/k/a Strategic Storage Trust, Inc.) with Extra Space Storage in October 2015 for $13.75 per share and the all cash merger of Strategic Storage Growth Trust, Inc. with Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc. in January 2019 for $12.00 per share. In June 2019, SAM entered into a series of transactions with SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (“SmartStop REIT”) (f/k/a Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc.) in which SmartStop REIT acquired the self storage advisory, asset management, property management and certain joint venture interests of SAM. As a result of the transactions, SAM and its subsidiaries own limited partnership units in the operating partnership of SmartStop REIT. SmartStop REIT is now a self-administered self storage REIT that, through its wholly owned subsidiary, SmartStop REIT Advisors, LLC, sponsors other self storage programs, including Strategic Storage Trust IV, Inc. and self storage private programs.
