Storage Investor SROA Capital Appoints New COO

SROA Capital, a West Palm Beach-based private equity firm that invests in self-storage facilities under the brand Storage Rentals of America, appointed Kenneth Speegle as its new chief operating officer. Speegle joins the firm from Extra Space Storage, where he spent the last 18 years, most recently as senior vice president of operations.

Speegle will be tasked with integrating technology across the firm’s operations. The hire comes a month after SROA bought a 176,000-square-foot industrial building in Hallandale Beach for $20 million.

Elsewhere in Hallandale Beach, PropertyForce hired Charles Grau as senior vice president of operations and technology. Previously, Grau was chief information officer and corporate compliance officer at Nordis Technologies, a Coral Springs-based provider of electronic payments and customer communication services.

PropertyForce, a real estate investment platform, has seen a slew of personnel changes in recent weeks. Neil Solomon, president of the virtual real estate firm since 2020, was promoted to CEO in April, and Maria Suarez joined as director of marketing and communications last month.

Further up the coast in Boca Raton, Allan Carlisle joined retail brokerage Katz & Associates’ Florida team as a director. Carlisle arrives from Ciminelli Real Estate Advisors, where he was director of leasing. In his ten years in the industry, Carlisle has leased more than 2 million square feet of commercial real estate, according to the firm.

Carlisle is the second recent hire in Katz’ Florida office; in May it brought in Robert “Sonny” Nuchereno as an associate.