January 22, 2019
Everest Infrastructure Partners today announced the acquisition by EIP Holdings I, LLC of nearly 100 wireless tower assets from Norwalk, Connecticut-based Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FTR). The acquisition includes towers located in 17 states throughout the U.S., with significant tower concentrations in Connecticut, New York, and California. “Everest is pleased to have been selected by Frontier to acquire these high-quality tower assets in attractive markets. We anticipate this to be one of the largest tower acquisitions completed in 2019 and provides us with the scale to better serve our customers,” said Mike Mackey, President of Everest. “We look forward to providing our customers, as well as Frontier, with best-in-class service at these locations.”
“The Everest team was tremendous to work with throughout this complex transaction. They demonstrated a high level of capability and service and we believe they will continue to provide exceptional infrastructure leasing services to our collective customers going forward,” said Jim Campbell, Group Vice President, Facilities and Real Estate Services for Frontier.
The Frontier towers include numerous valuable locations in terrain and zoning-challenged environments. The towers are also adjacent to Frontier’s Central Office facilities (“CO’s”) in many locations, providing easy access to transport services. “These sites have substantial capacity for additional tenants and are in optimal locations for the anticipated demands of 5G services. Many of these CO’s are centrally located in major urban markets in the Northeast, as well as small and medium-sized communities on the West Coast,” said Mackey. “The towers offer easy access to high-quality backhaul through Frontier, in areas with few alternatives for additional macro site installations.”
This is the eighth tower portfolio acquisition completed by Everest in the past two years. The transaction increases its current portfolio to nearly 300 tower sites in more than 40 states and makes Everest one of the largest private tower companies in the U.S. “The acquisition of towers and carrier customers from Frontier is a substantial increase in our footprint of tower locations as well as our customer activity with all of the national wireless operators,” said Matt Newton, CEO of Everest. “We are seeing tremendous growth across our tower portfolio as mobile operators continue to densify their networks and plan for new advanced services such as 5G. The portfolio of towers acquired from Frontier will add substantial value to our customers in these markets.”
Everest Infrastructure Partners is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with development and tower operations based in Boston, Massachusetts. “We work to meet the demands of all wireless service providers, specializing in the development of new towers in tough permitting and construction environments,” said Chris Davis, President of U.S. Towers for Everest. “The tower assets acquired from Frontier are a tremendous complement to our existing portfolio. We are positioned to offer national and regional mobile carriers, government entities, utilities and other wireless users high-quality tower sites coast to coast, and to develop new sites when suitable infrastructure does not exist.”
Everest completed the acquisition of the Frontier towers through an affiliated entity, EIP Holdings I, LLC. EIP Holdings is owned by clients and accounts managed by Barings. MVP Capital and Cushman & Wakefield’s Stamford, CT office represented Frontier Communications in this transaction.
About Everest Infrastructure Partners
Everest is a privately-owned operator of Communications Infrastructure assets including wireless communications towers, rooftop locations, tower ground leases, and indoor wireless systems. Everest provides infrastructure to all major U.S. wireless operators, and currently operates, manages, or markets more than 4,000 communications sites throughout the U.S.
For more information, visit www.everestinfrastructure.com
About Frontier Communications
Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: FTR) is a leader in providing communications services to urban, suburban, and rural communities in 29 states. Frontier offers a variety of services to residential customers over its fiber-optic and copper networks, including video, high-speed internet, advanced voice, and Frontier Secure® digital protection solutions. Frontier Business™ offers communications solutions to small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
For more information, visit www.frontier.com