Matthews closed the sale of Wantage Plaza and CubeSmart (managed) to AMERCO Real Estate Company (U-Haul) on September 29, 2026, per the firm's Newark press release. The 116,450-square-foot mixed-use asset at 205 Route 23 in Wantage, New Jersey, combines a 34,292-square-foot fully leased retail pad with an 82,158-square-foot storage wing holding 527 climate-controlled units and 108 secured RV and boat spaces.
What Did U-Haul Acquire on Route 23?
The property is a hybrid income stack, not a single-use storage box. Matthews positioned it to both retail investors and self-storage buyers because the cash flows do not look like a typical stabilized REIT disposition.
| Component | Size | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Total building | 116,450 SF | Mixed retail + storage on ~13 acres |
| Retail center | 34,292 SF | Fully leased NNN tenants; ~19-year average tenure |
| Self-storage | 82,158 SF | 527 climate-controlled units; 108 secured RV/boat spaces |
| Buyer | AMERCO / U-Haul | Strategic operator; terms undisclosed |
| Brokers | Patrick Forkin, Rob Cook | Matthews retail + storage platforms |
Marketing materials for the offering cited 635 total storage units when vehicle spaces are included, plus land available for future self-storage expansion along the Route 23 frontage. Phase deliveries in 2023 through 2025 brought additional climate-controlled inventory online before the family-office seller monetized the asset.
Why Did a Family Office Sell to a Strategic Operator?
The seller was a local private family office executing a 1031 exchange, per Matthews and ROI-NJ. The goal was not a fire sale; it was repositioning capital while preserving pricing power and exchange timing.
Forkin and Cook leaned on Matthews' proprietary database to reach national self-storage capital and local retail buyers simultaneously. Multiple offers surfaced. U-Haul was directly sourced as the winning strategic buyer.
Through an extensive marketing process across our retail and self-storage platforms, we generated significant interest and multiple offers from qualified buyers. That competition allowed us to negotiate the strongest possible deal terms for our client and ultimately achieve their objectives for the sale.
- Patrick Forkin, Senior Vice President and Associate Director, Matthews
That process matters in September 2026 underwriting. Yardi Matrix still reported national advertised rates down 1.9% year over year in August, yet hybrid assets with retail income and expansion optionality continue to clear when brokers widen the buyer pool.
How Does Wantage Fit U-Haul's Storage Platform?
U-Haul already operates more than 2,100 self-storage facilities totaling roughly 98 million square feet across North America, per Matthews' June 2026 State College release. Wantage adds a Northwest New Jersey node where U-Haul can bundle moving trucks, self-storage, and U-Box portable containers on one campus.
The company's public location page for 205 Route 23 lists self-storage, U-Box, moving supplies, and towing, confirming operational integration post-close. That cross-sell logic mirrors the Pennsylvania State College buy, where U-Haul paid for geographic completeness near a major university rather than waiting for perfect lease-up stabilization.
CubeSmart's prior management role is a branding footnote, not the economic story. The storage wing was managed, not necessarily owned, by the public REIT. The buyer gets real estate, retail income, and a storage operation it can rebrand under U-Haul's ecosystem.
What Should Operators Learn From the Wantage Trade?
Hybrid sites widen the buyer list. Retail cash flow plus storage upside attracted AMERCO when pure-play storage funds might have underwritten only the 82,158-square-foot component.
1031 timing still drives September deal flow. Sellers with exchange deadlines will accept strategic pricing from operators that close quickly. U-Haul's platform fit that profile.
Managed-brand assets keep trading. Former CubeSmart operations remain liquid in private markets even as REITs focus on platform M&A like SmartStop's $140 million September initiative. Management labels do not cap who can own the real estate.
Private scale still compiles. The same week, Andover Properties crossed 100,000 Storage King USA units, a reminder that non-REIT platforms are still aggregating square footage while strategics like U-Haul buy one-off hybrid campuses.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- 116,450 SF: total mixed-use building area at 205 Route 23, Wantage, NJ.
- 82,158 SF: self-storage component with 527 climate-controlled units.
- 108: secured RV and boat parking spaces on the storage parcel.
- 34,292 SF: fully leased NNN retail center; ~19-year average tenant tenure.
- ~13 acres: site area with expansion land cited in marketing materials.
- September 29, 2026: Matthews press release date for the U-Haul closing.
- Multiple offers: competitive process before AMERCO was sourced as buyer.
Strategics Still Pay for Ecosystem Density
Wantage will not reset national cap rates. It does show who is still writing checks when street rates are soft and securitized loan surveillance is tightening: family offices exiting hybrid assets, brokers running dual-sector processes, and logistics-adjacent buyers paying for Route 23 visibility plus storage expansion rights.
Pure-play funds that only model storage NOI miss the retail pad, the 1031 seller's timeline, and U-Haul's portable-storage attach rate. September 2026's Wantage close is a small deal with a large strategic signal.
Sources
- U-Haul Acquires Wantage Plaza and CubeSmart in Strategic New Jersey Expansion, Matthews, September 29, 2026
- U-Haul acquires Wantage Plaza and CubeSmart as it expands in N.J., ROI-NJ, September 30, 2026
- U-Haul Moving and Storage of Wantage location page, U-Haul
- Wantage Plaza and CubeSmart (Managed) offering memorandum, Matthews, 2026