Self Storage Zone

Diane Tipton is a founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Self Storage Zone. She has developed self storage facilities in the Washington Metropolitan Region for the past 23 years. Ms. Tipton identifies and secures the sites and with her team, analyzes the project costs, oversees the design, engineering, and operational information to determine the economic feasibility of each of the projects. She oversees the management company for the self storage projects, SSZ Management, LLC, during lease-up and operations. Along with her partners, she has developed, owned and managed over 3,200,000 square feet in 30 self storage projects in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, New York and New Jersey.

Ms. Tipton worked for The Evans Company for 10 years where she was Vice President of Finance and Acquisitions, responsible for structuring debt and equity for the development of large office buildings and negotiated several full building leases with GSA. Before becoming involved in real estate development, Ms. Tipton practiced as a CPA with Reznick, Fedder and Silverman, the precursor to CohnReznick, specializing in taxation, particularly real estate, where she structured real estate acquisitions and syndications as well as performed tax planning for partnerships, corporations and individuals. She also practiced as a CPA in the National Tax office of Ernst and Whinney as well as a general tax accountant at Arthur Andersen at the beginning of her career.

Ms. Tipton graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting as well as a Masters of Tax in Accounting. Ms. Tipton is currently on the Advisory Board of CubeSmart, the 4th largest Self Storage REIT and is on the Boards of numerous Non-Profit organizations. Diane is a 2009 recipient of the “Women Who Mean Business” Award.

Mr. Czekaj is a co-founder and Chairman of Self Storage Zone, a self-storage platform that developed and acquired in excess of 3.5 million square feet of self-storage facilities valued at more than $500 million in the New York, Washington, DC metro and Florida markets. Currently, Self Storage Zone is developing four new facilities in the Washington, DC metro market. Mr. Czekaj is the Manager and Co-Founder of Cambridge Holdings LLC and its operating subsidiaries with a primary focus on the strategic direction of the company, capital structures and new business opportunities. Mr. Czekaj has an extensive background in commercial real estate including development, project capitalization, asset acquisition/ disposition as well as asset restructures.

Mr. Czekaj has been instrumental in the development, financing, acquisition and structuring of over $7.5 billion of commercial real estate. Mr. Czekaj has structured the development and acquisition of more than 24 million square feet of office and industrial product on behalf of partners and clients. Since 2020, he has spearheaded the effort into logistics and distribution—structuring the acquisition of 10 million square feet of industrial space. The portfolio spans from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast region. In addition, he was instrumental in restructuring a $1 billion-plus commercial and residential portfolio concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic, Southwest and Florida markets.

Mr. Czekaj is an alumni of Rutgers University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He attended The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, then obtained his Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Mr. Czekaj is a member of NAIOP. Mr. Czekaj served for nine years on the Board of Trustees for Rollins College and as a board member of the Stimson Center through 2018. He currently serves on the advisory board of Fly Alliance Aviation Group.

Mr. Garchik has been a real estate developer and owner for 38 years. In that time, he and his partners at The Evans Company and subsequently at SJM Partners Inc. and Self Storage Zone have developed approximately 4,000,000 sq ft of office space, 2,000,000 sq ft of residential properties, 5,000,000 sq ft of self storage projects, 1,200,000 sq ft of retail space and 500,000 sq ft of industrial product. Many of the office projects were headquarters or regional campuses for Fortune 500 tenants or Government Agencies. Retail projects include developing stores for K-mart, Costco, Builders Square, drugstores and four grocery anchored shopping centers. Residential developments include high- rise luxury rental projects in Washington, DC and Baltimore and student housing at the University of Maryland as well as affordable housing units across the US in joint venture with MRK Partners, Inc. Self storage projects developed include 24 properties in the northern New Jersey and New York City metropolitan area, 12 properties in South Florida and 20 properties in the Washington, DC market.

In addition, Mr. Garchik and his associates have master planned over 10 million square feet of mixed use office parks in Northern Virginia, the Maxwell House Coffee 1,200,000 sq foot mixed use development in Hoboken New Jersey, a 605 unit Brickell Avenue high rise complex on Brickell Avenue in Miami and several residential golf course communities.

Mr. Garchik serves on the board of several non-profit institutions. He holds a Bachelor of Science and M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Burke is responsible for all of the real estate development at Self Storage Zone. Mr. Burke has over 24 years of experience in construction and development of real estate. In his career he has been involved in all aspects of development with expertise ranging from acquisitions, feasibility, project planning, through construction for millions of square feet of retail, office, multifamily, mixed–use and self storage projects. Mr. Burke joined SJM Partners in 2004 and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Development and Construction. He is also a Partner in many of the real estate projects he is involved with. Mr. Burke is responsible for the planning and execution of the company’s development and redevelopment projects as well as defining and executing capital improvement projects within the SJM portfolio and for Self Storage Zone. He has managed the development and construction of millions of square feet of complex ground up projects as well as renovations of residential, commercial, mixed-use and self storage projects.

Prior to joining SJM Partners, Mr. Burke was a Development Manager for Vornado/Charles E Smith, the Washington DC division of Vornado Realty Trust, where he worked on various phases of planning and project execution for the construction of approximately three million square feet of urban office, retail and multifamily residential space. Additionally, he has previous construction experience from his time at Foulger-Pratt Construction and Harkins Builders where he was responsible for field operations and project management of numerous commercial, residential and mixed-use projects. He holds a B.S. degree from James Madison University.

Mr. Bernard is the Director of Operations and is responsible for day to day operations of our locations. He helps perform the due diligence on new site locations as well as in the acquisition of existing self storage facilities. Mr. Bernard is responsible for hiring and training all new managers according to the company policies and procedures. He is responsible for and an expert in the continuous training of managers in facility management procedures, telephone techniques, and operation of their facility. He assists in creating and implements all of the marketing programs in the various locations. He is also responsible for preparing the annual budgets as well as creating and implementing the Policies and Procedures for all of the sites.

Michael started in the self storage industry more than 25 years ago and has worked with Self Storage Zone for the past 17 years. He has worked for several other self storage operators including Storage USA, Storage Deluxe and Storage Post. Michael started as an Assistant Project Manager and worked his way to Area Manager, Division Manager and now Director of Operations. He has managed sites in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.