Crown Castle Doing Well as a REIT

Crown Castle is considered a newcomer to the REIT world, since they only began operating as such at the beginning of 2014, but analysts regard them as a heavyweight in the sector citing a good long-term outlook. “The secular growth trends in the tower industry are very impressive compared to most traditional types of real estate,” says Jim Sullivan, a managing director at real estate research firm Green Street Advisors. “The demand story for cell towers is as good a story as there is in the real estate business.” (Source: REIT.com) September 2013, Crown Castle decided to covert to REIT status following American Towers’ conversion in 2012. President and Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Moreland explained, “We believe a REIT structure will lower our weighted average cost of capital and provide additional opportunities for creating long-term shareholder value. Further, we expect our conversion to a REIT to have little to no effect on our operations, and we intend to continue our focus on maximizing long-term adjusted funds from operations per share through growth and disciplined capital allocation.” Crown Castle and American Tower are both operating particularly well as REITs given the rising demand for mobile data, the ability to expand into other countries, and their unlimited growth potential.