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When Falmouth native Mike Pride retired from the merchant marine after 21 years, he began his “chapter two” by investing in commercial real estate.
Several years ago, F.O. Bailey Real Estate broker Thomas Gadbois introduced him to the self-storage sector, showing him a facility at 226 Gorham Road in Scarborough and another at 14 Tory Hill Drive in Buxton.
“I thought, “It’s a business but not a lot of employees, so I can run it myself,’” Pride recalls.
Pride bought the properties with a bit of skepticism.
“I’m thinking, ‘Who puts their stuff in storage?’” he says.
After fixing them up and doing some marketing, he soon had the answer plenty of folks. Now Pride is building a third facility 550 units across 10 buildings at the Innovation District at the Downs in Scarborough. Since he got into the business, he found the clientele is diverse and, apparently, never-ending. Customers include small business owners who rent units to store their wares and olde