Communications Sales and Leasing

Overview

Communications Sales and Leasing was formed in 2011 as a real estate investment trust (REIT) spun out of Windstream Holdings, the former telecom incumbent. Kenny Gunderman, previously at Windstream, became CEO and has run the firm since its inception. The entity was structured to own and lease the physical network assets — fiber, copper, towers — that Windstream operated, creating a pure-play infrastructure company. CSL's strategy centers on acquiring and leasing communications infrastructure, primarily in the US. Asset classes include fiber-optic cable, copper loops, cell towers, and data center facilities. The firm's portfolio covers 50 states and over 1 million fiber route miles. Known lessees include Windstream and other major carriers. CSL targets a triple-net lease model, with tenants responsible for property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, providing cash-flow stability, 2021). The firm has publicly reported over 100,000 cell tower sites and 400,000 fiber miles in its portfolio at peak. Team size and additional offices are not publicly disclosed. In 2021, CSL was acquired by Uniti Group Inc., a Little Rock-based REIT, in a transaction that merged two infrastructure firms with aligned models, 2021). The combined entity continues under the Uniti Group branding. CSL's structural differentiator was its deliberate separation from an operating telecom company — Windstream — to isolate the physical infrastructure from the service-provider business. This allowed the REIT to avoid the risks of telecom operations while collecting stable, long-term lease payments. The structure mirrors the infrastructure-as-an-asset-class paradigm that has attracted institutional capital into towers and fiber.