Trojan Storage acquired the 625-unit, 82,760-square-foot Extra Space facility at 17811 Bothell Everett Hwy in Mill Creek, Washington, with physical occupancy above 90% at closing, per List Self Storage's September 23, 2026 transaction roundup. StorTrack data in the same report shows $1.94-per-square-foot walk-in averages in a submarket carrying 7.83 square feet of supply per capita.
The trade is a stabilized Pacific Northwest tuck-in, not a 2025 vintage lease-up bet. It lands the same week national advertised rates fell 1.9% year over year in August, per Yardi Matrix's September 2026 national report, while buyers still pay for scarcity and in-place cash flow on visible suburban corridors.
What Asset Changed Hands on Bothell Everett Highway?
List Self Storage labeled the deal Extra Space Storage - Mill Creek (Bothell-Everett Hwy) in its September 14-18, 2026 closing window. Trojan Storage now brands the property on its website as Trojan Storage of Mill Creek, confirming the operating identity post-close.
Reported characteristics from the roundup:
| Attribute | Reported detail |
|---|---|
| Address | 17811 Bothell Everett Hwy, Mill Creek, WA 98012 |
| Net rentable square feet | 82,760 |
| Units | 625 |
| Occupancy at close | Above 90% physical |
| Buyer | Trojan Storage |
| Product positioning | Visible SR 527 corridor; rent upside cited |
List Self Storage framed the investment case as embedded rent upside on a stabilized base, not a greenfield absorption story. That matters when Marcus & Millichap's September outlook shows national asking rents still drifting lower even as transaction volume recovers.
Why Did Mill Creek Clear While Monroe, Georgia, Sold in Lease-Up?
The September 23 roundup juxtaposed two supply pictures in the same email:
- Mill Creek: 7.83 SF/capita, 44 stores, $1.94 walk-in average, $138,500 median income
- Monroe, Georgia: 17.34 SF/capita, 12 stores, $0.66 walk-in average, facility sold while still leasing up
Trojan paid for performance in a tighter Pacific Northwest pocket. List Self Storage's same roundup showed Self Storage Monroe in Georgia, a 647-unit, 89,525-square-foot 2024 opening sold while still in lease-up at 17.34 SF/capita and $0.66 walk-in averages. Both trades closed in the same week; the underwriting logic could not be more different.
For Mill Creek, List Self Storage highlighted affluent demographics and high walk-in rate floors as justification for buying occupancy north of 90%. For Monroe, the thesis was discounted basis and future fill, not current pricing power. Operators comparing the two should read Colliers and Green Street's progress-not-recovery framing before assuming one national playbook fits every MSA.
How Does the Deal Extend Trojan's Snohomish County Footprint?
List Self Storage explicitly called the Mill Creek box a natural geographic connector within Trojan's existing Bothell-Everett operational footprint. Trojan already markets multiple facilities along the SR 527 and I-405 corridor, including Bothell North Creek and Everett locations.
Platform buyers win on density: shared call centers, unified pricing rules, and maintenance routes that do not require a new manager on every deed. Trojan's Mill Creek add is classic corridor consolidation, the same logic MyPlace Self Storage applied when it stacked Arizona and Michigan closings within 48 hours in September 2026.
Extra Space's corporate site still lists historical operating details for the Mill Creek address, including a 1977 established date on some marketing pages, while Trojan's current site emphasizes drive-up, RV, and resident-manager service. Rebranding and revenue management reset are the immediate value-levers new ownership controls.
What Do $1.94 Walk-In Rates Imply for Revenue Management?
StorTrack excerpts in the roundup show:
- Walk-in average: $1.94/SF
- Online average: $1.73/SF
- Walk-in non-climate: $1.92/SF
- Walk-in climate: $1.95/SF
A 21-cent walk-in premium over web rates is smaller than some Sun Belt gaps but still shows active discounting online to compete. Trojan inherits a customer base paying top-quartile street rates with room to push existing tenants if street exceeds in-place averages.
That pairs with national commentary that occupancy has stabilized while revenue growth stays pressured by the spread between in-place and street rents, language Yardi Matrix repeated in its September 23, 2026 blog post. Trojan's play is to harvest the spread on a 90%-plus occupied asset rather than fund two years of lease-up burn.
What Should Buyers Learn From the Mill Creek Trade?
Stabilized PNW assets still trade on rate floors, not just occupancy. Walk-ins near $2.00 per square foot in a 7.8 SF/capita market signal pricing power that 17 SF/capita Sun Belt lease-ups do not offer.
Regional operators beat REITs on corridor density. Trojan did not need a $500 million portfolio to justify the acquisition; it needed adjacent management infrastructure already on SR 527.
Extra Space disposals remain a deal source. Whether corporate strategy or local market pruning, listed REIT boxes continue to feed middle-market buyers while institutional capital chases Class A 2023 vintages elsewhere.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- Buyer: Trojan Storage
- Address: 17811 Bothell Everett Hwy, Mill Creek, WA 98012
- Size: 82,760 NRSF | 625 units
- Occupancy: Above 90% physical at closing (List Self Storage)
- Supply: 7.83 SF/capita | 44 stores (StorTrack via List Self Storage)
- Rates: $1.94 walk-in vs. $1.73 online avg/SF
- Demographics: $138,500 median household income (StorTrack snapshot)
- Report date: List Self Storage roundup published September 23, 2026
Scarcity Still Clears at the Top of the Rate Stack
September 2026's deal tape is bifurcated: lease-up sellers in oversupplied Georgia towns and stabilized buyers in Pacific Northwest corridors where walk-in rates approach $2.00 per square foot. Trojan's Mill Creek acquisition is firmly in the second camp.
National rent indices may still print negative year-over-year averages, but this trade says local scarcity and operator density still command institutional attention. The question for 2027 is whether enough Mill Creeks exist to absorb capital fleeing 17 SF/capita markets, or whether pricing power stays hyper-local while national headlines stay soft.
Sources
- Weekly Self Storage Transaction Roundup: 9/14/26 – 9/18/26, List Self Storage, September 23, 2026
- Trojan Storage of Mill Creek facility page, Trojan Storage
- Soft Demand, Lingering Lease-up Supply Tame Self Storage Rate Growth, Yardi Matrix, September 23, 2026