News & Articles

These are cell tower sites in which the cell tower operator is losing money on an annual basis. They are usually cold steel towers in which the anchor tenant has terminated leaving the tower “cold steel.” There are some towers that may have a tenant or two on the tower

Most cell tower ground leases contain an escalator. That escalation is either a term increase or annual. When negotiating with a cell tower lease operator, you are much better off in the long haul to obtain a yearly escalation rather than a term escalation. A Term Escalator is typically a

The Telecom industry in 2023 has seen its fair share of twists and turns, and a recent development caught my eye. A U.S.-based tower company aims to raise $2 billion by selling approximately 3,000 leases on sites where they hold perpetual easements under cell towers. The article delves into specifics

Consent is an important provision in a cell tower land lease.  Anytime work is being done on the tower, it’s possible that the cell tower operator may need to get written permission from the property owner.  As you can imagine, that can be a nuisance which is why consent can

A compound expansion is when a cell tower operator lacks the space in the current leased premises to accommodate a new carrier, generator or other improvement.  If you are a property owner with a cell tower lease, it’s important to understand how the lack of additional space in a compound

Market capitalization at the start of 2015. CCI – ~26.15B ATC – ~39.14B Market capitalization today. CCI – ~50.96B ATC – ~97.13B Given recent leadership changes at American Tower and Crown Castle, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to consider a simple, yet telling, market capitalization comparative look

Many property owners aren’t thinking about hiring a consultant when they receive a call or letter in the mail from a cell tower operator. Why hire a consultant? While many property owners have handled these negotiations themselves, they aren’t experts in the field and in my opinion run the risk

Tower Relocation is when a tower is moved to an adjacent property or nearby property. Usually tower relocation is a negotiating ploy used against a landlord when they are in negotiations with a cell tower operator. It’s important to note that tower relocation in this situation is rare. However, the

When do you know there’s an opportunity to renegotiate your tower ground lease? As a ground lease gets within 15 years of final lease expiration, cell tower operators try to extend these leases. One-time payments/signing bonuses are commonly offered for these renewals. Many landowners have succumbed to these upfront payments

Last week we touched on cell tower valuation for lease buyouts. This week we’re going to run through the types of buyouts. The types of lease buyouts are perpetual easements, land purchases, term easements, prepaid leases, and capital leases. A perpetual easement is the most common of all buyouts. Typically,