Houlihan Lokey Advises AH Wells

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the successful sale of the Wells Building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a telecom “carrier hotel,” data center, and commercial real estate property, to fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547), a leading developer and operator of carrier and enterprise-class data centers. The Wells Building was the sole asset of AH Wells, LLC, a portfolio company of Ascendant Holdings and Bixby Bridge Capital. The transaction closed on September 3, 2020.

AH Wells, LLC (AH Wells) acquired the Wells Building (Wells) in 2011. The property primarily provided office leasing space and colocation services to prominent financial, healthcare, and telecom enterprise customers in Milwaukee. With more than 30 telecom carriers interconnecting within the building, there remained significant untapped network potential, and AH Wells sought a telecom-centric owner to unlock that value. Given Houlihan Lokey’s expertise in the data center and carrier hotel sector, the firm was engaged to advise AH Wells on the sale of the carrier hotel.

Upon completion of the transaction, 1547 will bring extensive telecom and data center development and management experience to complete the colocation and telecom services expansion in the building. Wells will continue to offer colocation and commercial real estate services to business customers across the Greater Milwaukee Area.

Houlihan Lokey was engaged by AH Wells given its deep experience working with carrier hotels and after having successfully sold New Continuum and Digital Capital Partners, local data centers in the Great Lakes Region. Houlihan Lokey was AH Wells’ exclusive financial advisor on this transaction. The sale of Wells further solidifies Houlihan Lokey as a market-leading provider of advisory services to Midwestern telecom companies. Additionally, this transaction further deepens Houlihan Lokey’s foothold in the data center and carrier hotel sector, which is seeing increasing M&A and capital markets activity. Seyfarth Shaw LLP served as legal counsel to AH Wells.