All Knowing BBS --cell tower lease

Different rates for different areas tends to be the norm. I know I just finished designing a house for some people close by and the cell tower on the family property would be paying the mortgage on their new house. The new house ain't bad. And yes, it's on the same property right in from of where they are building.

 

Funnier yet- that area is one of my favorite weekend ride destinations...great roads, and yes- a great BBQ place!

 

I know a non profit organization that got $275,000 for a 10 year lease to Verizon for a tower. They had to re-zone a piece of their land that they own, from agricultural to commercial though. The taxes for that little chunk of tower land are ridiculous now, like $20,000 a year. So basically, they're getting about $75,000 in their pockets after paying the taxes, on the 10 year lease.

This is a huge tower on their property, fenced in with a building.

 

Ouch!

At least it didn't burn up 4 lanes of I-77 like the other one did.

 

I cant comment on what to expect for lease rates not knowing your area, but as said before. you effectively take what they offer or lose it. you can demand to be paid for additional sub-leases on the tower, although this should be standard in the lease. any reasonable access demands must be listed in the lease. (such as prior notification to arrival, certificate of insurance from all contractors, requirement that all carriers list you as additional insured) otherwise good luck getting these later.

If you have the option, try to require either a Guyed or Lattice tower. There has been a push for Monopoles as they are cheaper, but more dangerous to work on. I would also push a requirement for all Platform based mounts. T-arms are incredibly dangerous as they tend to order the cheapest mounts possible. Most of them are not Man-rated and will put workers at risk.

Myth: You will rarely see anyone on your property
Fact: You will rarely see anyone from the carrier on your property. There are a myriad of subcontractors and you can most likely expect someone there at least once a week.

Myth: Carriers are all about safety
Fact: With massive pushes to get technology out, Carriers say they are about safety, but they care more about deadlines. The GC's they use are even more concerned with deadlines. The sub or sub-sub contractor will generally try to perform work safely as possible, but the further down the chain they go, the more likely they will pull short cuts.

Myth: The Carrier hires the crew working on the site
Fact: The Carrier hires a General Contractor (Turf Vendor)(Majority of the big companies have gone this route with LTE), the GC then hires multiple Sub Contractors. The Sub Contractor hires another sub-contractor. and potentionaly another SC after that. You may find that the guy performing the work, has no clue who he is doing it for.

 

More info- this will be a LTE tower they are shorter(need no guy wires) it will take up 2400 sq ft of commercial property within the city limits.There are possible site nearby but this site was chosen by them I think based on elevation.

 

I dont know how much things have changed in the last 20+ yrs but I distinctly remember an old friend telling me how he screwed up not buying an adjoining lot when he bought his home. He said it would have only cost him an additional $10-15K, anyway, I think his neighbor bought it, several yrs later a cell tower was put on this property earning it's owner roughly $5-10k/month!!! I don't know if property taxes have to be paid out of that amount or if it was negotiated as separate but damn that's good money. I know I've also heard due to the risk of losing a sale to a neighbor, prices have dropped dramatically in recent yrs. Hell, I've heard since my friends story that cellular companies have essentially put up a 'sign up' sheet on their websites for those interested in letting them build on their property, you know that has had to drop costs down if they're located in an optimal location for them.

Just recently, I've spoken to someone on this topic, here in NNJ, municipalities have gotten themselves into the game as well, I was told if a town has an accommodating property for a cell tower, good luck getting permits, that's there way trying to lure the company to use town property so they can get the lease.

 

That's what I wanted to do, was trying to figure out a way to buy a junk lot that adjoins one of my properties. It just happened that my cell carrier had crummy coverage in that area and that I have a buddy who services my carrier's sites. He gave some insight as to how it all works and that, yes they were looking for a tower site in that area. Then the lot I wanted to get control of flooded in 2008. They won't touch it now.

 

Cell Tower Leases

I used for work for a large tower building company as their civil engineer and dabbled a little in the site acquisition side. RF Engineers would give me 3 search rings in an area. I would start with the best one and make my offer and if they wanted to be difficult I would simply move to option #2. I would suggest taking the offer if it's reasonable or be prepared to stare at one for nothing for the next 25 years. You would not believe the number of times land owner #1 would ring my phone off the wall once he saw construction taking place on his neighbors property. Typical lease would increase 5% every 3 years and would not allow any additional money if the tower owner added additional carriers on their towers. Never had any landowner regret it once those checks started coming in. Lease amounts would vary from $500 for rural locations to $3000 for metropolitan locations.

Here is a tower that I did several years ago after an F3 tornado.