"The sale-leaseback is part of a larger initiative AT&T has under way to manage our capital and redeploy our capital," a company spokesman confirms for GlobeSt.com. "In the process, we are re-orienting our real estate assets. Through the acquisitions over the years, AT&T owns a lot of real estate."

"We do have a long-term lease with options," the spokesman says, while declining to provide specifics of the lease. "The sale won't affect our New Jersey operations. It won't change the function of the facility."

The site's primary function is as AT&T's global network operations center, plus other administrative uses. It briefly served as AT&T's world headquarters prior to the company's acquisition by Southwestern Bell and subsequent consolidation of all HQ functions to San Antonio. At one time, the site was an operations center and overflow location for AT&T's long-time two million-sf headquarters campus in nearby Basking Ridge before the company downsized and consolidated its HQ and administrative operations to the Bedminster location in 2002.

The new owner is MetLife's affiliate, Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Co. "The building was acquired as part of a 1031 exchange related to the company's late-2006 sale of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan," a MetLife spokesman tells GlobeSt.com. "This is an extremely attractive asset in a great location and it will serve as an important component of MetLife's increasingly diverse $8 billion real estate equity portfolio."

The transaction was arranged by Cushman & Wakefield. Brokers for C&W, while confirming their participation in the sale-leaseback, declined further comment. As far as the property itself, the complex was completed in 1975 and last renovated in 2000. The site is also said to have the potential for additional development.