Lekaks Texas LLC paid $2.25 million for SafeKeep Self Storage at 1792 NW Polk City Drive in Ankeny, Iowa, closing May 11, 2026 with Colliers' de Jong Self Storage Team representing the buyer. The 54,775-square-foot facility includes 291 units built in 2020 and was 82% physically occupied at closing. Inside Self-Storage included the trade in its June 2026 acquisitions roundup alongside billion-dollar REIT headlines that obscure where most deals actually happen.
The SafeKeep transaction is a secondary-market data point, not a platform rollup. A Washington-state holding company bought a 6-year-old Iowa asset from a private seller group at a price point most institutional conference panels ignore.
What Did Lekaks Texas Acquire?
SafeKeep is institutional-quality product by construction vintage and unit mix standards, even at a sub-$3 million price:
- Size: 54,775 rentable square feet, 291 units, 4.4 acres
- Vintage: Built 2020
- Mix: Climate-controlled units, non-climate-controlled drive-up, enclosed RV and boat parking
- Occupancy: 82% physical at closing
- Location: Ankeny, Iowa, in the Des Moines MSA
Sellers included Leo Investments LLC, T Leo Capital LLC, Spencer Vance, and the Eric and Carol Ziel Revocable Trust, per Inside Self-Storage's June 17, 2026 update.
The implied basis is roughly $41 per rentable square foot ($2.25M / 54,775 SF) and approximately $7,731 per unit. Those figures sit in the range where private buyers and first-time owner-operators compete, well below the $100-plus per square foot implied on Merit Hill Capital's $12.35 million Westborough, Massachusetts trade in the same month.
Why Did Colliers Frame Ankeny as a 2026 Target Market?
Tom de Jong, executive vice president at Colliers and head of the de Jong Self Storage Team, tied the acquisition to a specific buyer thesis: high-growth secondary markets with limited new supply and durable household demand.
Ankeny is exactly the kind of market serious buyers are targeting right now – strong demographics, limited competition, and a demand base that isn't going anywhere. This facility checks every box on what a disciplined institutional buyer is looking for in 2026: newer construction, a diversified unit mix, a proven operator market, and a submarket that hasn't been flooded with new supply.
- Tom de Jong, Executive Vice President, Colliers
The quote reflects a June 2026 capital allocation pattern. Buyers are not chasing Sun Belt lease-up specials in markets where Yardi Matrix documented elevated concessions and compressed advertised rents. They are buying stabilized or near-stabilized assets in metros where population and employer growth outpace storage deliveries.
Ankeny fits that screen. U.S. News and World Report ranked it the #1 Best Place to Live in Iowa and #18 nationally in 2025. The surrounding Des Moines MSA counts Wells Fargo, Principal Financial Group, John Deere, Microsoft, and Meta among major employers. News coverage cited population and household growth consistently outpacing national trends.
That employer base supports both household storage demand and the RV and boat parking component SafeKeep offers. Vehicle storage premiums remain a 2026 acquisition angle as RV and boat storage institutionalization accelerates across the sector.
How Does the SafeKeep Trade Compare to June 2026 Deal Flow?
June 2026 produced headline trades that distort perception of where capital actually deploys:
| Deal | Price | Size | Buyer profile | |------|-------|------|---------------| | Public Storage Canada (pending) | $1.2B | 68 properties, 5.3M SF | Public REIT platform | | Merit Hill / Westborough MA | $12.35M | 119,994 SF | Institutional fund | | Baranof / Tampa StorQuest | $8.25M | Undisclosed SF | Storage-focused PE | | SafeKeep / Ankeny IA | $2.25M | 54,775 SF | Private holding company |
The SafeKeep row is where the majority of U.S. storage transactions live. List Self Storage's June 2-10 roundup documented 14 trades across 11 states in a single week, most below $15 million. SROA's Lubbock acquisition added 54,453 square feet to a 720-property platform in the same band.
Lekaks Texas LLC is a Sequim, Washington-based real estate investment and holding company, not a national REIT. The buyer's post-closing statement to Colliers praised the brokerage team for "finding SafeKeep and being our broker and mentor through this whole process," language typical of first-time or early-career owner-operators entering the asset class through a guided acquisition.
That buyer profile matters for sellers. Private exit opportunities remain open in June 2026 even when mega-mergers dominate press releases.
What Does 82% Occupancy on a 2020 Asset Signal?
Eighty-two percent physical occupancy on a 6-year-old facility is not distressed, but it is not stabilized either. A 2020 vintage asset should underwrite toward low-90s occupancy if market demand and pricing systems are optimized.
The gap suggests upside for an operator who applies institutional revenue management, digital marketing, and rate optimization tools. It also explains the $41-per-square-foot basis: the seller priced partial lease-up into the trade rather than holding for full stabilization.
For Lekaks, the 18-point occupancy spread is the acquisition thesis. Closing at $2.25 million with 82% occupancy implies the buyer underwrote lease-up to 90% or above without paying stabilized pricing. In a market where Capright documented a 69% spread between contract and street rents at Public Storage in Q4 2025, independent operators who improve occupancy and street-rate discipline can capture value REIT platforms extract through ECRI programs.
SafeKeep's RV and boat component adds ancillary revenue potential beyond standard 10x10 household units, a mix increasingly common in suburban Iowa corridors where vehicle ownership rates exceed dense urban markets.
What Should Operators and Brokers Learn From Ankeny?
Three lessons stand out.
Secondary markets are not secondary for deal volume. Ankeny will never anchor an investor conference keynote. It represents the transaction type that keeps brokers busy while REITs negotiate billion-dollar platforms.
2020 vintage is the sweet spot for private buyers. Old enough to prove demand, young enough to avoid deferred maintenance surprises. SafeKeep's 2020 construction date hit that window precisely.
Colliers is consolidating storage brokerage mindshare. The de Jong team's June 2026 SafeKeep closing followed a month of documented trades across price points. Brokerage concentration mirrors operator consolidation: specialized teams win repeat buyer mandates because they source off-market assets like SafeKeep before they hit auction platforms.
For capital watching secondary market outperformance in 2026, Ankeny is another data point that supply discipline and employer-driven demand beat raw population scale when street rates are under pressure nationally.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- Sale price: $2,250,000
- Closing date: May 11, 2026
- Buyer: Lekaks Texas LLC (Sequim, Washington)
- Broker: Colliers, de Jong Self Storage Team (buyer representation)
- Address: 1792 NW Polk City Drive, Ankeny, Iowa
- Size: 54,775 rentable square feet, 291 units, 4.4 acres
- Vintage: 2020
- Occupancy at close: 82% physical
- Implied basis: ~$41/SF, ~$7,731/unit
- Unit mix: Climate-controlled, drive-up, enclosed RV and boat
- Market rank: Ankeny #1 Best Place to Live in Iowa, #18 U.S. (U.S. News 2025)
- Comparable June trades: Baranof Tampa $8.25M; Merit Hill Westborough $12.35M
The Real Market Trades Below the Headlines
Public Storage's Canadian expansion and the pending NSA merger will define 2026's legacy deals. SafeKeep defines 2026's daily deal flow: $2.25 million, 54,775 square feet, a private buyer from Washington state, and a Colliers team sourcing product in a ranked Iowa submarket.
That is the market most operators actually compete in. Sellers waiting for REIT bids on sub-60,000-square-foot assets should read SafeKeep as proof that private capital remains active when demographics, vintage, and basis align. Buyers assuming only billion-dollar platforms are deploying in 2026 should look at Ankeny.
The middle market is not frozen. It is just not making the front page.
Sources
- Colliers Advises Buyer on Acquisition of SafeKeep Self Storage in Ankeny, Iowa, citybuzz / Colliers
- De Jong Self Storage Team Facilitates SafeKeep Acquisition in Ankeny, Newsramp
- Self-Storage Real Estate Acquisitions and Sales: June 2026, Inside Self-Storage
- Merit Hill Capital Pays $12.35 Million for Westborough, Massachusetts Self-Storage Asset, Your Ciao News
- Self-Storage Secondary Markets Outperform on Supply Discipline, Your Ciao News