Luc Poirier, who has become well known in Quebec real estate circles for his deals and social media clout, has been named president of a self-storage real estate investment trust.
Poirier, whose land deals have made him roughly $1 billion, joined forces with retired Quebec judge Michel Lassonde to lead Margaux REIT, a publicly traded company that launched mid-March on the TSX Venture Exchange under stock symbol ALFA.UN.
The REIT joins StorageVault as the only one of two publicly traded self-storage companies in Canada.
Poirier said in a text message that he plans to be actively involved in Margaux REIT and that he is busy building self-storage facilities in Beauharnois and plans to start another in Montreal next year.
Margaux REIT has $100 million put aside to purchase mini-storage facilities and is working with 10 storage companies in its search for new acquisitions, Poirer's colleague Lassonde said. “There are not many big buyers who can do deals for $10 million or $15 million, not many individual buyers can do it,” he said in an interview.
The new Margaux REIT owns self-storage facilities under the name Alpha Entrepot in Cowansville, Roxton Pond and Drummondville, all in Quebec.
Lassonde said while he has been working with Poirier for over a year on the project, his involvement began earlier.
"I launched this project three years ago and Luc Poirier heard about it and so I explained where I was going with it, the legal structures and financial advantages," Lassonde said. "He said that, 'Rather than starting at zero, I’ll join up with you,'” Lassonde said in an interview.
Self-storage is a solid place for growing capital, according to Lassonde, who said the sector has seen an average annual return rate of 17% over the past five decades. Along with business profits, the value of the land the facilities are built on tends to increase in value over time, he added.
Margaux REIT's Cowansville property is its largest facility with 90 units in a pair of buildings on a property that can also accommodate 70 recreational vehicles. The Drummondville facility has 48 self-storage units on 100,000 square feet of land in a building currently being expanded, while the Roxton Pond has 181 units over 100,000 square feet.
Lassonde's real estate roots go back to 2006 when he founded what became Canadian Net REIT.
He said that Poirier is “fully committed” to the task of being president of Margaux REIT. “The advantage of having him on board is that when there is something to sell, he is always the first person people call because they know he has money and he decides fast," Lassonde said.