Las Vegas investor buys Sarasota RV parking facility

A massive storage facility for RVs has changed hands in Sarasota.

The 5.56-acre, 14,000-square-foot facility, Elite Motorcoach Storage, traded hands for $12.3 million. The buyer was the Las Vegas private equity firm Crystal View Capital.

Gail Bowden, the senior investment adviser at SVN who brokered the deal, calls the property a unicorn, saying that “before it was built about three years ago, most RV storage facilities were little more than parking lots with fences around them.”

This property, though, is a bit different.

Although maybe not extravagant as some car condos that have been going up across the Gulf Coast, this facility “offers high-end service with indoor storage and lots of amenities” says Bowden.

Among those amenities are air-conditioned units with 24-hour security, Wi-Fi hot spots, bathrooms in some units and on-site management. The building, which is at 5921 McIntosh Road, is hurricane proof.

Crystal View will continue operating this facility as a deluxe RV storage site, but there’s no word if it will keep the name. Whatever it’s called, the facility is likely to have plenty of customers in years to come as demand for RVs remains solid.

According to the RV Industry Association’s March 2022 manufacturers survey, 64,454 units were delivered to dealerships. That’s up 18.7% from the 54,291 delivered March 2021. For the year, deliveries are up 15.5% from 2021 as of March.

Crystal View specializes in buying and managing self-storage facilities and manufactured home communities. According to its website, it has raised more than $90 million of equity capital since it started in 2014 and currently has more than $150 million in assets under management.