Sprint sells Kansas campus for well below market value

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Wireless carrier Sprint has sold its massive suburban Kansas City campus for well below its appraised value under a deal that allows it to lease back office space at a rate lower than market value.

Investment research firm Moody’s released research on the $250.9 million deal just ahead of the Justice Department’s final determination of whether Sprint’s $26.5 billion merger with T-Mobile presents any antitrust concerns. Sprint and T-Mobile have said the combined company will keep a secondary headquarters on the campus, with its main operations in suburban Seattle.

The report provides the most detailed information so far on the recently completed sale of the 190-acre campus, which was built between 1998 and 2001 at a cost of about $700 million. Local government officials have appraised it at $342.5 million.