City of Cedar Rapids and US Cellular Corporation Announce Naming Rights Agreement for City’s New Convention Complex

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 22, 2012 -- CEDAR RAPIDS ¬(February 22, 2012) – FrewNations Group, LLC (www.frewnations.com) is pleased to confirm that it has negotiated a naming rights agreement with United States Cellular Corporation for the new Cedar Rapids Convention Complex, through which U.S. Cellular will pay the city $3,832,402 million over a 10-year period in exchange for exclusive marketing and promotional rights to the complex.

“We are honored that our long-time partner U.S. Cellular Corporation has committed its support for our city and our new convention complex project,” said Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. “U.S. Cellular and the City of Cedar Rapids share a commitment to excellence, and we are proud to call our new convention center the ‘U.S. Cellular Center’ and our new hotel the ‘Doubletree by Hilton at the U.S. Cellular Center.’”

“U.S. Cellular is committed to the communities we serve,” said Don Cochran, director of sales for U.S. Cellular in Iowa. “We feel it’s important to bring friends and families together, which is one of the benefits of a renovated U.S. Cellular Center. U.S. Cellular has been a proud sponsor of the U.S. Cellular Center since 2000. Our commitment to our communities is one of the reasons U.S. Cellular has the happiest customers in wireless.”

FrewNations is the City of Cedar Rapids’ project and construction manager for the convention complex project in downtown Cedar Rapids that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2013. The project involves substantial renovations to the city’s indoor arena and its recently acquired hotel, along with the construction of a 130,000-square-foot convention center.
The arena carried the U.S. Cellular name under a previously expired agreement. Under the new agreement, which will be submitted for approval by the city council on February 28, 2012, the arena and the city’s convention center will both be marketed as the, “U.S. Cellular Center” and the city’s convention center hotel will be marketed as the “Doubletree by Hilton at the U.S. Cellular Center.”

“Our team has worked closely with Chad Settle and others at U.S. Cellular to defined a market-based agreement beneficial to both parties, and that is consistent with the agreements we negotiated with Hilton Worldwide to brand the hotel and manage the entire facility,” said FrewNations Managing Principal John Frew.

If approve by the city council, the agreement will run for an initial term of seven years with payments totaling $2,601,999. The agreement allows U.S. Cellular to extent the term for an additional three years with payments totaling $1,203,403 for a total of $3,832,402.

A comparison of recent naming rights deals follows:

Cedar Rapids Convention Complex Naming Rights Agreement
Comparable Venues
February 23, 2012

Total Term Average Annual Investment

Sears Centre Hoffman Estates, IL $10,000,000 10 $1,000,000
Qwest Center (CenturyLink) Omaha $14,000,000 15 $933,333
Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines $11,500,000 20 $575,000
Ford Center Evansville, IN $6,845,000 15 $456,333
Hy-Vee Hall Des Moines $8,025,000 20 $401,250
U.S. Cellular Center and
Doubletree by Hilton at the
U.S. Cellular Center Cedar Rapids $3,832,402 10 $383,240

Comcast Arena Everett, WA $3,700,000 10 $370,000
1STBANK Center Broomfield, CO $1,750,000 5 $350,000
Huntington Center Toledo, OH $2,100,000 6 $350,000
ShoWare Center Kent, WA $3,175,000 10 $317,500
AMSOIL Arena Duluth, MN $6,000,000 20 $300,000
Community Choice/
Vet's Auditorium Des Moines $2,500,000 10 $250,000

Notes:

1) Annual investment is stated as average and may ramp up over years. For example, the Evansville arena ramps up from $281,000 in year one to $435,000 in year 15 (Evansville deal does not reach $350,000 level until year 9).
2) Annual investment is stated as "gross" and may be combination of cash and in-kind (Cedar Rapids is all cash).

About U.S. Cellular

U.S. Cellular rewards its customers with unmatched benefits and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier has a strong lineup of cutting-edge devices that are all backed by its high-speed nationwide network that has the highest call quality of any national carrier. U.S. Cellular was named a J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Customer Service Champion and received PC Magazine’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Award. To learn more about U.S. Cellular, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com. To get the latest news, promos and videos, connect with U.S. Cellular on Facebook.com/uscellular, Twitter.com/uscellular and YouTube.com/uscellularcorp.

About FrewNations
FrewNations is a project and construction management company founded in 2003, providing project planning, design and construction management, and land use, zoning, financing and facility operations services.

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