Cell phone tower at work.

[kc5dlo]

The company I work for bought the building we are at 5 or 6 years ago. There is a large cell phone tower on it and the phone company has equipment on site. The tower was already there and the lease for the tower runs thru 2018. Recently our owner has been receiving offers to negotiate with the phone company. He is wondering why all the people are interested all the sudden when the current lease is not up for 4 more years. The building is in Dallas. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with cell towers?

 

[Industrial Toys]

When a tower is in place, it's in place. To put up a new one often results in all manner of opposition. With the increasing demand for wireless services, this will only become a bigger problem.

 

[sshaw]

There's a thread on here that talks about this. The thread has some good points. I'd say if your owner is considering renegotiating the lease, he should make sure to hire an attorney or other professional familiar with cell tower deals. Otherwise, he may end up getting underpaid.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/262646-cell-towers.html

 

[bigtiller]

There are a lot of companies that are trying to buy the contract between the land owner and the cell tower owner. The contracts are worth a substantial amount of money for the land owner if he sells the contract. It is usually several years worth of rent, sometimes 7 or more.

In addition, the owner usually gets a percentage of any future rent increases.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Actually out here in the country, I hear the land owners get little more then free cell phone useage. From what I also heard, is that the major player in this business, basically puts up towers around here and worries about the paperwork, permits and opposition later!

 

[bigtiller]

Actually out here in the country, I hear the land owners get little more then free cell phone useage. From what I also heard, is that the major player in this business, basically puts up towers around here and worries about the paperwork, permits and opposition later!

What part of Canada are you talking about? I doubt that it works that way in any moderately populated areas, there is a lot of money to be had just for the asking. Maybe the people you are hearing about don't want to talk about their finances.

 

[Industrial Toys]

It's deffinitely different in Urban areas. I was really surprised. I have heard this from a few people now. A few years ago a short 70 foot tower went up at a neighbours to support a County Wide high speed Internet program. I was jealous because, I already had a tower in a higher location (for my UHF Ham Repeater) albeit not as accessible and would have liked them to approach me. Anyway, they had to pay the hydro and only got some High Speed internet for compensation. Their neighbours accross the road protested agressively on account of RF dangers! The tower and program are gone in the meantime with the big players in the market having taken over with larger three hundred foot towers.

 

[Depmandog]

Many years ago, my neighbor worked for a major player in the cell business. His job was to secure locations for new towers.

He would get an "order" from the system engineers and it would tell him to secure a tower site within so many thousand feet of a certain point, and it had to be at a particular elevation range.

I recall him saying the site restrictions really limited the number of possible locations on most orders. Of course he didn't share this information with the landowners, but if they only knew he was authorized to pay 10 or 20 times more than the negotiated rate...

So if someone ever tracks me down and offers me a contract to lease a tower site on my ground..you can bet we will haggle and then haggle some more!!

 

[2458n]

Depending on who has the tower determines how much money is flowing. One news program did a story on the people who build the towers. It used to be like the wild west. Every person who had a safety harness was a cell tower installer. Many towers have more than one companies equipment on them. That is where the real money is at. If they are trying to buy it now, I would imagine it will be worth more in the future. Maybe not if technology changes.

 

[TCJatko]

It's definitely sound advice to hire an attorney well-acquainted with the industry. With the proliferation of hand-held devices, I don't see cell towers going away anytime soon.