Last week a federal judge ruled in favor of the $26.5 billion Sprint and T-Mobile merger, shutting down anti-trust arguments brought by a group of attorney generals and clearing the way for the merger to close as early as April this year.
Prior to this ruling, reports of concerns on the stability of Sprint as a standalone company if the merger was blocked, created uncertainty of Sprint and T-Mobiles’ future office presence in South Johnson County.
"These fears are now alleviated, as the merger will pave the way for stability in the Kansas City office market and the companies’ commitment to remaining in Kansas City. All signs point to continued stability in Johnson County," according to a recent report by JLL Research*.
The former Sprint Campus, now renamed as The Campus, sold to Occidental Management in July 2019. That quarter, availability in South Johnson County increased 0.4% after several former Sprint spaces became available.
Availability in South Johnson County currently stands at 13.7%, below the market average of 16.2%.
Sprint currently occupies an estimated 2.2M SF of The Campus, with long-term leases to remain in about 1M SF. Sprint has also committed to at least $25M of capital investment to improve their long-term space.
About 1.5M SF is currently leased by third party tenants; 120,000 SF of which was leased since Occidental acquired The Campus. About 130,000 SF is currently available and marketed for lease. Occidental Management plans to invest significant capital in the campus to add amenities and attract third-party tenants.
A Place For Mom recently leased 42,000 SF at The Campus to house their first Kansas City office and has plans to hire 600 new employees to the KC metro.
Sprint currently employs 6,000 people at the campus and has shared speculative plans to hire 1,000 more.
*Statistics, opinions and other facts in this article sourced by JLL Research.