AT&T has disconnected its ownership of 10 South Florida sites, selling the office/industrial properties to Reign Capital for a combined $62.9 million.
An affiliate of New York-based Reign acquired buildings spanning roughly 1 million square feet in Coral Gables, Homestead, Miami, Miami Gardens, Sunrise and West Palm Beach, records and real estate database Vizzda show. The 10 sales are part of Reign’s $850 million purchase of 74 AT&T facilities across the country that the communications company is leasing back.
“The uniquely structured deal unlocks value in otherwise stranded commercial real estate space,” Dallas-based AT&T’s head of global real estate, Michael Ford, said in a statement.
Completed in the early 1970s, the 10 buildings house copper networks that are rarely used and have become obsolete due to AT&T’s shift to fiber and wireless networking, according to a press release. The company will maintain operational control of the properties to access communications infrastructure.
The leases will run through the end of the decade when AT&T is expected to no longer use its copper network operations, the release states. As part of the deal, AT&T will also receive financial participation in any revenue Reign derives from possible redevelopment of the sites, as well as having final approval for any projects.
In 2021, Reign and AT&T struck a similar deal involving 13 nationwide properties spanning 3 million square feet. Reign paid $300 million for the sites. Reign owns and manages over $2.5 billion of real estate assets, according to the firm’s website.
In other recent AT&T real estate deals, the company sold a former office and training campus in Plantation for $13 million to Coconut Grove-based Related Group and Aventura-based BH Group in 2023. Last month, the Plantation City Council approved the joint venture’s site plan to redevelop the 13.7-acre site into a mixed-use project with 512 apartments and townhomes, 24,970 square feet of retail space and 833 parking spaces, the site plan shows.