Thursday July 8, 8:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
U.S. RealTel Adds 63 Million Square Feet to Its Portfolio Via Agreements with the Jacobs Group and Weingarten Realty
Retailers and Shoppers to Benefit From New Microcell Technology
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 1999--U.S. RealTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: USRT-OTC), the world's largest landlord of pre-leased telecommunications access sites, recently signed master lease agreements with The Richard E. Jacobs Group and Weingarten Realty Investors Inc., adding 63 million square feet to its real estate portfolio.
These agreements offer telcos, who are looking for antenna network sites or to provide state-of-the-art telecommunication services, easy access to an additional 246 properties. These properties join more than 6,000 locations already part of the USRT Telecom Grid(tm).
U.S. RealTel (USRT) leases telecommunication placement and service rights to telcos and helps property owners maximize the value of their properties by providing the opportunity to bring state of the art telecommunications technologies to their tenants and to earn ancillary income. Telcos gain fast access to the real estate by only having to deal with one landlord, USRT.
As a result of USRT's unique leasing methodology, millions of dollars of new income for landlords from similar agreements are already in process. After a master lease is signed, USRT markets the property owner's sites to telcos seeking to utilize their site or serve their tenants.
The majority of the 63 million square feet being added to the Grid is comprised of shopping malls, which benefits not only telecommunications companies seeking sites for microcells, a new technology, but retailers and shoppers as well. Microcells, each the size of a small cabinet, have been designed so that shoppers can use their wireless telephones inside enclosed malls. Microcells can also be camouflaged easily inside theaters, convention facilities and office buildings.
''The Jacobs Group and Weingarten Realty Investors have attractive property portfolios, and both have a particularly strong presence in the retail market,'' said Bud Blinick, senior vice president--site development, U.S. RealTel. ''For shopping centers, the opportunities go beyond antenna placement and service rights into new technology such as microcells.''
The Jacobs Group
USRT will add the Jacobs Group's 37 shopping malls to the Telecom Grid.
The Jacobs Group is headquartered in suburban Westlake, Ohio, and was originally founded in 1955. Today, the firm owns and manages more than 45 million square feet of commercial real estate located from coast to coast.
Weingarten Realty Investors
Weingarten Realty Investors is a Houston-based real estate investment trust that owns 219 income-producing properties in 13 states. Included in Weingarten's portfolio are 180 shopping centers, 38 industrial properties and one office building.
''We are consistently looking for ways to add value to our properties, through renovation, remerchandising and on-going property management. The agreement with U.S. RealTel allows us to add another dimension to our strategy,'' said Stanford Alexander, chairman and chief executive officer of Weingarten Realty Investors.
Weingarten Realty Investors focuses on the development and acquisition of community shopping centers in the Southwest. The shopping center division includes properties that range in size from 100,000 to 400,000 square feet.
About U.S. RealTel
Founded in 1997, U.S. RealTel has amassed the nation's largest telecom real estate portfolio controlled by one landlord. Based in Chicago, U.S. RealTel has a portfolio of thousands of real estate properties throughout the United States and in South America comprising its USRT Telecom Grid.
The United States portion of the USRT Telecom Grid includes more than 90 million square feet of office space, 458.6 million square feet of shopping malls, 8.7 million square feet of industrial space, 40 million square feet of commercial strip center space and 330,000 apartment units.
For more information, visit the U.S. RealTel website at www.usrealtel.com.
The statements contained in this news release that are forward looking are based on current expectations that are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially. The uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to competitive and market factors, customer purchasing behavior, general economic conditions, technological advances, real estate trends, and other facets of the Company's business operations.
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Contact:
For U.S. RealTel
Citigate DGPR
Jam Stewart, 312/372-6042 |
