It all started with a small company in 1998. Jim Rech co-founded the venture, focused on developing towers in New England. The sky was the limit.
Fast forward to 2014. Rech co-founded Blue Sky Towers in Massachusetts after serving as Vice President, U.S. Tower Development, for Global Tower Partners. At the time of its sale to American Tower Corporation in 2013, GTP was the largest privately-owned cell tower operator in the U.S. with more than 16,000 wireless sites.
“I saw beginning Blue Sky Towers as an opportunity to utilize my industry experience and assemble a team of professionals that understands what customers need when developing, acquiring and operating wireless assets,” said Rech, Blue Sky’s President & CEO.
Blue Sky has grown and expanded its tower development and acquisitions throughout the U.S. and continues to offer rooftop development, portfolio management and marketing services. Rech attributes the portfolio’s organic expansion to cultivating relationships with the big three carriers and multiple, strategic acquisitions. “We have doubled our size in terms of employees and assets in the past two years,” Rech said. Trusted partnerships are key. “Blue Sky’s relationship with Peppertree Capital Management has also been instrumental to funding our success.”
Currently, Blue Sky operates in 31 states. Its portfolio stretches from Alaska to the Caribbean with a strong presence in the Northeast U.S. The company continues to expand their U.S. territory footprint.
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200 Years of Experience
Blue Sky strives to be a reliable, well-funded, midsize tower partner, delivering on time to ensure customers can meet projected on-air dates. The tower company’s management team includes several industry veterans. “Our team has more than 200 years combined experience in the wireless infrastructure industry. We don’t back away from challenging zoning environments in some of the toughest markets to develop towers in the U.S. and Caribbean,” Rech said.
Blue Sky Towers Team
No Slowing Down for the “Slowdown”
In 2023, despite a slowdown in carrier capital expense spending, Blue Sky experienced one of its busiest and most successful years yet, with significant growth in every KPI metric as they continued to expand their U.S. footprint, according to Rech.
“We overcame challenges by being organized and having processes in place to ensure the team understands the company goals and methods to achieve them,” Rech said. “I believe our success is a result of three decades of building on relationships, reputation and extensive experience in wireless infrastructure development.”
Blue Sky’s focus for 2024 is leasing up its current assets, continued portfolio growth and building its alternative asset base.
Deep-Rooted Relationships
Rech and the Blue Sky team values its long-term relationships and experience with Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile, dating back to Bell Atlantic, Cingular and Omnipoint Communications, respectively.
“Our reputation and trust were earned through decades of experience and performance which continues to provide us with a platform to showcase our abilities as a developer of wireless infrastructure in very difficult regions,” Rech said. “We will continue to grow exponentially under the same terms and fundamentals for years to come.”
For more information, email Blue Sky Towers Info@blueskytower.com or visit https://www.blueskytower.com/.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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