By Drew Whitney
Ocala, Fla., has a brand-new RV & boat storage facility, and Toy Storage Nation has already recognized it with a Facility of the Month Award. There’s a simple saying, “Sometimes you just know,” and Beacon RV & Boat Storage is one of those sites that makes a toy storage geek’s heart skip a bit. Maybe two.
The project started taking form when the development team recognized that Ocala 
residents needed more RV/boat storage. The North Central Florida city, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, is home to a large retiree population and is within driving distance to great inland waterways and coastal cruising hotspots such as Daytona Beach and Cape Canaveral. Dotted with rivers, lakes, forests and parks, the area is abundant with natural beauty to lure residents onto RV trips and boat excursions galore.
“We saw a great opportunity with all the growth in Ocala to bring a product of great service to people living here and who are moving here,” explains Mark Henderson, real estate professional and partner in Beacon RV & Boat Storage, speaking on camera during the facility’s grand opening celebration captured by a local TV station in September.
Mark and his team knew that the Ocala MSA has been one of the fastest-growing markets in the United States for a handful of years. Further research validated that toy storage development was on mark, so they set forth to find land. How did they pick the exact spot to develop? It was easy, says Mark.
“We found the best site for RV and boat storage in the entire greater Ocala MSA!” he says, before explaining more specifically: “It was big, flat and shovel-ready with great soil and easy hookups to city water and sewer.”
But wait, it gets better: “It’s just 2 miles from I-75, super close to a major commercial strip in Marion County and right next to Ocala Airport,” he continues. More than 20,000 homes are close by, with more on the way–almost all of which are under HOA covenants blocking residents from parking RVs and boats on the property. Another expansive 5,000-home community sprawling over 1,800 acres is going up across the street.
And to top it all off, Mark adds, “The property features 600 feet of prime road frontage for all the drive-by eyes we could want, with excellent opportunity for ancillary billboard revenue.”
To Infinity and Beyond 
To quote everybody’s favorite hero, Buzz Lightyear, Beacon aims “to infinity and beyond” when it comes to Class A features. The first four below meet Class A standards set by Toy Storage Nation, which states a facility should have a security gate and be fully fenced, paved and either covered or canopied. The rest are above and beyond:
- 8-foot pre-cast concrete fence,
- security lift gate with keypad and remote access control via SpiderDoor,
- fully paved lot,
- 15’ height hurricane-proof canopies,
- 12’-wide spaces,
- 35’-wide drive aisles,
- RV wash bay with air and vacuum,
- dump station,
- ice,
- mixture of 20A & 30A electrical outlets at all of the covered spaces and
- full-time manager in the customer center/office.
The 15-acre parcel facility consists of 519 spaces, 278 covered and 241 uncovered. Beacon didn’t skimp on amenities either, all of which are included in the rental fee. “We do not believe in upcharges for amenities,” explains Mark. “Rather, we like to provide a premium product offering an all-inclusive price.”
Thus, tenants have full access to the wash bay, electricity, dump station, bagged ice and
dog park. Added bonus: The customer service center offers complimentary coffee and snacks, with a lounge area stocked with puzzles and games for kids to enjoy while parents take care of packing and unpacking for trips.
“Culture and building community are key, particularly for this asset class, so a fully engaged, off-the-charts extroverted manager is a requirement,” Mark says, before elaborating on the decision to stick to in-house management. “After multiple outsourced property management blood baths, we spun up our own firm, which has been a game-changer. It’s the soul of our company. None of this would be possible without it and the people who work for us.”
Local Team Proved Valuable From the Get-Go
Beacon was fully completed in June 2025, with seemingly less pitfalls that some developers experience in the process. Turns out that using a local development team paid off.
“Both our civil engineer and contractor have been doing business in Ocala for 30+ years and thus were very well known to the city, local lenders and subcontractors,” Mark recalls. “We went through a rezoning and site plan approval process with the City of Ocala. The approvals process took nine months and construction took nine months for a total of 18 months.”
Planning and zoning often create snafus for projects, but Beacon sailed through, another 
bonus of working with local professionals. “We worked out a lot of the details of the site with the city in a ‘pre-application’ meeting before we submitted our site plan package,” Mark states. “Further, our general contractor sits on the city council and was able to clue us in to all of the ins and outs with the city. Ultimately, the process was smooth, on time and we had full support for the project from the city, which has now extended to the Ocala Chamber of Commerce.”
Determining unit mix and decisions about whether to cover spaces or not came down to a simple equation built around the team’s research.
“All good plans go to hell when the battle starts!” Mark begins. “So instead of hiring a quantum mechanics PhD to predict the perfect mix, we built what we knew would be filled based on our research of the market, keeping almost 50% of the spaces unfinished/unstriped so we could customize later once we better understood demand. Ultimately, we will have a much better idea of the ‘optimal’ unit mix once we have been operating for six to 12 months, but we are ready to adjust as needed as the facility matures.”
The true test relies on hard data: occupancy rates. The team projected they’d accrue 17 leases a month. Real-time stats turned out to be much better: 30 leases a month. The key? “Underpromise and underdeliver,” says Mark.
Getting the Word Out
Occupancies often rely on marketing strategies, but factoring in potential competition–long before development–is the initial predictor. The Beacon squad, of course, had done their homework, but were unimpressed by the RV/boat landscape upon their arrival.
According to Mark, the only nearby potential competitors consisted of a handful of self-storage facilities with less than 30 spaces and an outdated 200-unit site. A new development of 400+ spaces is underway five miles away, but its location will likely not pose any threat to Beacon. “We may be biased, but are quite confident that Ocala residents will recognize Beacon RV & Boat Storage as the best solution combining location, service, quality and price,” he says.
Beacon’s marketing reflects today’s standards: SEM, SEO, Google My Business, review promotion, signs, email, text, direct mail, events and local publications, but tracking efficacy is imprecise, Mark says. They also have large, highly visible signage all over the site including banners hanging from the facility’s wall on the frontage road along with a 15-foot billboard sign.
But it’s the organic marketing–the interactions with the community and existing tenants–
that makes the difference. Says Mark, “The most impactful is the culture we try to build with our tenants. Nothing is more effective than having natural local influencers in the form of raving customers.”
And this boils down to having the right people on your team, he adds. His hard-working team is dedicated and loyal, which he believes relates to managing staff with respect. Beacon RV & Boat Storage’s trajectory has definitely been a team effort, including advice from two specific colleagues, Toy Storage Nation Advisor and real estate developer Chris Koenig and Barry Raber, a real estate pro who founded Bargain Storage and Carefree RV Storage.
The icing on the cake is being in a business that brings people together to cherish time with family and friends enjoying the great outdoors. Asked to describe the fruit of his labor, Mark lets go.
“Best. Industry. Ever! Great people, great product, low stress. While it’s not rocket science, there is definitely an art to site selection, partner selection, construction, lease up and building a community with the tenants. We are proud of what we do and it shows.”
To learn more, visit the Beacon RV & Boat Storage website.
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