Consumer Cellular hones corporate real estate portfolio with Arizona headquarters deal

The mobile network operator will relocate its headquarters to 8501 E. Raintree Drive in Scottsdale after fully leasing the 123,340-square-foot building, Consumer Cellular confirmed in a statement. The 15-year deal is the largest office commitment in the Phoenix market so far this year, according to CoStar data, even if it enables Consumer Cellular to condense its physical presence and offload excess space.

“We started to look at the next 10 years for the company, and it makes a lot more sense to have a centralized location that has both call center components in it and a corporate headquarters,” CEO Ed Evans said in the statement. “The facility at Raintree brings that all together for us.”

Consumer Cellular, one of several brands that rent space on larger networks such as AT&T to then offer through their own plans, will be able to use its future Scottsdale hub to house employees across its call center, marketing, technical, executive and administrative teams. The company is expecting to complete the move sometime in the second half of 2027.

The deal means Consumer Cellular will immediately backfill Vanguard Group’s space once its lease at the Scottsdale property expires in July. The Raintree Drive building was developed as a build-to-suit project for the investment management firm about two decades ago, but it still offers an array of perks and amenities that the mobile network provider believed were pertinent to making the office both productive and supportive.

“We want to create a place where people want to come into work,” Evans said, adding that features such as an on-site restaurant that went beyond vending machines or water coolers were important, as well as huddle areas and conference spaces where remote workers had space to come in for regular training sessions.

Originally based in Portland, Oregon, Consumer Cellular relocated its headquarters to Scottsdale more than half a decade ago following its $2.5 billion acquisition agreement with private equity firm GTCR.

The provider currently leases just shy of 345,000 square feet of office and flexible space throughout the Phoenix area, according to CoStar. Its call center at 17500 N. Black Canyon Highway in Phoenix makes up the bulk of that footprint, and the deal for that office isn’t set to expire until 2029.

With its new East Raintree Drive space, Consumer Cellular is expected to begin downsizing some of the offices scattered across the Phoenix area, although Evans said it will keep a handful of facilities as it continues to respond to the residual impacts of the pandemic.

The company’s ongoing hybrid work policy, for example, means that half of its workforce is still working from home — or at least not regularly showing up to a Consumer Cellular outpost.

It’s a shift companies across the country are continuing to grapple with as they scramble to strike a balance with evolving spatial requirements, escalating attendance policies and pressure to upgrade their spaces.

Tenants have spent the past couple of years reevaluating and solidifying their real estate needs, often leveraging lease expirations or landlord negotiations to upgrade their space. That flight to quality has boosted occupancy at the newest and nicest properties but has decimated demand for many older, less desirable alternatives.

That flight has often meant downsizing the total amount of space they may have leased in a region, and deals such as Consumer Cellular’s are often bittersweet for markets such as Phoenix, as they mark a significant commitment to one place while also resulting in a substantial loss of occupancy elsewhere.

Recent leases signed across greater Phoenix underscore tenants’ strong preference for premium office space, where occupancy is far stronger compared to the market as a whole. Availability for top-tier properties is about 13%, according to CoStar data, far below the roughly 21% reported for the overall market.