SmartStop’s Third Maple Bond Raises CAD $200 Million and Nearly Clears 2026 Debt

The 4.317% notes run to 2031 and move the drawn balance on the company’s senior revolver into fixed-rate term debt.

August 19, 2026

SmartStop Self Storage REIT has closed a CAD $200 million issue of senior unsecured notes, its third Canadian Maple Bond, directing the proceeds toward existing borrowings including amounts drawn on its revolving credit facility.

The Series C notes were issued on August 18 by SmartStop OP, L.P., the company’s operating partnership. Their terms:

• interest of approximately 4.317% per annum, paid semiannually in cash;
• first payment due February 18, 2027;
• maturity February 18, 2031;
• rated BBB with a stable outlook by Morningstar DBRS.

Terming out the revolver

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer H. Michael Schwartz characterized the deal as an opportunistic use of the company’s Canadian exposure to raise capital at an attractive rate, and said it leaves SmartStop having substantially completed the refinancing of its 2026 debt maturities while materially terming out the balance on its senior revolver and laddering remaining maturities further out.

The revolver piece is arguably the more consequential half of that. Shifting a drawn credit line into fixed-rate term debt trades floating-rate exposure for a known coupon and restores undrawn capacity on the facility, which is the capital a storage operator leans on to move quickly on acquisitions between term financings.

Why Canada

SmartStop has operated in the Greater Toronto Area for more than 15 years, and it and its affiliates own or manage 53 operating self-storage properties across four Canadian provinces, comprising roughly 47,000 units and 4.7 million rentable square feet. Funding that exposure with Canadian dollar debt keeps the liability in the same currency as the cash flow servicing it, and it opens a second investment-grade market rather than queuing behind every other U.S. REIT for the same buyers.

A platform, not just a portfolio

SmartStop is internally managed, with an in-house operating team of more than 1,000 storage professionals. As of August 18, its owned or managed portfolio spanned more than 460 operating properties across 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada, totaling over 275,000 units and more than 35 million rentable square feet.

That scale reaches past the REIT’s own balance sheet. Through its indirect subsidiary SmartStop REIT Advisors, the company sponsors other self-storage programs, and its managed platform provides third-party management in the United States and Canada. Terms the sponsor can command in the unsecured market are a reasonable read on the financial strength standing behind the vehicles it sponsors.

Syndicate and counsel

The notes were placed on an agency basis through a syndicate of agents, with BMO Capital Markets and National Bank of Canada Capital Markets as bookrunners and Scotiabank and RBC Capital Markets as co-managers. McMillan LLP acted as Canadian counsel, Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough LLP as issuer’s United States counsel, Venable LLP as Maryland counsel, and Davies Ward Phillips and Vineberg LLP as dealers’ counsel. The notes are not registered in the United States and may not be offered or sold there without registration or an applicable exemption.