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Last year, the company carried a dividend yield of about 5 percent on its REITs. It also pays the lowest dividend against other self-storage REITs because the company pours earnings back into operations.

While Public Storage’s strength is in real estate holdings the business at hand is still formidable. Public Storage needs only about 25 percent occupancy for a warehouse to break even.

“We want to be the McDonalds of the self-storage business,” said Lenkin. “We advertise with powerful media, offer new services and try to stay one step ahead of our competition. We are evolving, changing and making the company grow.”