U-Store-It Trust

Cleveland, OH: (Aug-07-07) After months of legal wrangling between the company's founders and current management, U-Store-It Trust has ended its disputes with the Amsdell family and acquired 14 self-storage facilities from them for $121 million. The company, which is a self-administered and self-managed REIT focused on self-storage facilities, and Amsdell & Amsdell jointly announced the acquisition deal and the end of the protracted legal battle. Company sources stated that the company had reached a settlement in disputes with Rising Tide and Robert Amsdell, the former chairman & CEO of U-Store-It Trust; his brother Barry, with whom he co-founded U-Store-It in the 1970s, and Robert's sons Todd and Kyle.

The dispute between the two entities dates back to late February 2007 when Robert Amsdell resigned as chairman and Todd Amsdell was fired as president of the U-Store-It Development L.L.C. subsidiary. In late May, 2007, the REIT filed a complaint in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas claiming that Robert and Todd Amsdell had breached their fiduciary duties to the company, and violated their non-competition agreements with the company by hiring or seeking to hire employees of the company. The complaint also alleged that Robert, Kyle and Todd Amsdell manipulated occupancy rates at Rising Tide self-storage development properties to avoid triggering a provision that would have given Rising Tide the option to buy the properties. [COMMERCIAL PROPERTY NEWS: MANAGEMENT DISPUTE]