Tower Sale and Leaseback (Notes) |
12 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dec. 31, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tower Sale and Leaseback [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tower Sale and Leaseback |
Tower Sale and Leaseback
In August 2016, we sold to Vertical Bridge Towers II, LLC (“Vertical Bridge”) 276 cell sites (“Tower Sites”) in exchange for net proceeds of $90.8 million (“Tower Transaction”). The sale included, where applicable, the towers, the land on which the towers were situated if owned by us, the obligation to pay land leases, and other executory costs.
We entered into a master lease agreement in which we lease back space at the Tower Sites for an initial term of ten years, followed by the option to renew for eight additional five year periods, for a total possible lease term of 50 years. Each lease is subject to a 2% annual increase in lease payments throughout the life of the initial lease and all subsequent lease renewals.
Prior to the Tower Transaction, we had the legal obligation to remove the towers upon termination of the land lease agreements. The obligation is now reduced to the removal of our equipment from the towers. Therefore, we have reduced our asset retirement obligation related to the Tower Sites by $3.4 million.
Per the master lease agreement, we have the right to cure land lease defaults on behalf of Vertical Bridge and have negotiated fixed rate lease renewals as described above. Due to this continuing involvement with the Tower Sites, we determined we were precluded from applying sale-leaseback accounting. We recorded a long-term financial obligation (“Tower Obligation”) in the amount of the net proceeds received and recognize interest on the Tower Obligation at a rate of 7.1% using the effective interest method. The Tower Obligation is increased by interest expense and amortized through contractual leaseback payments made by us to Vertical Bridge. Our historical tower site asset costs continue to be depreciated and reported in Net Property and Equipment.
The following table summarizes the impacts to the Consolidated Balance Sheets (amounts in thousands):
Future minimum payments related to the Tower Obligation, including expected renewals and excluding deferred transaction costs, are summarized below (amounts in thousands):
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