Expanding storage company names new president

BRADENTON — Hide-Away Storage founder Steve Wilson named Paul Feikema president of Hide-Away Storage Services Inc. 

The company operates 24 self-storage facilities in Southwest Florida under the Hide-Away Storage and Xpress Storage brand names. 

For the past 12 years, Feikema has held several positions at Hide-Away. Most recently, he was vice president of operations. As president, he will oversee day-to-day business operations and play an integral role in development and acquisition initiatives, according to a press release. 

Before joining Hide-Away in 2005, Feikema worked in residential and commercial land development in Southwest Florida. He also served as a U.S. Navy officer for eight years and now serves in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Wilson will continue to be involved in identifying acquisition opportunities and new developments as well as other operational areas.

“For 40 years God has blessed me with the opportunity to create and build a company with a culture of serving customers with excellence,” Wilson says in a statement. “I know that Paul Feikema is the right person to continue this culture as well as building operational excellence in this new phase of growth and development.”

Wilson founded Hide-Away Storage in 1977 in Bradenton. In 2016, Wilson and his partners contributed 14 storage facilities to National Storage Affiliates, a self-storage real estate investment trust. The tax-deferred transaction was valued at $114.9 million. Since then, Feikema and Wilson have added $40 million of additional storage facilities to the company's portfolio. 

Hide-Away is in the final phases of constructing a new $8 million facility on State Road 70 East at Lockwood Ridge Road and a $4.7 million expansion of the Lakewood Ranch Hide-Away Storage on State Road 64 east of Lorraine Road. It's also planning to start construction this summer on a self-storage facility in Cape Coral and has plans for a new facility on U.S. 41 at Toledo Blade Blvd. west of Port Charlotte.