Municipalities Cell Site Negotiations and Cell Tower Negotiations
Municipalities are no better equipped to negotiate a Cell Site or Cell Tower Lease than the average site owner. For this reason, many local municipalities have entered one-sided agreements at well below market rates for rent. If a City Attorney and City Manager basis their decision upon a neighboring County, this could and usually spells trouble.
ComServe has many years experience looking at Cell Site Leases, Rooftop Cell Site Leases and Cell Tower Leases. We have seen over a Thousand Leases agreements. With this vast experience, we can help guide the government body down the maze of decisions. We will give them the knowledge to make the right decisions for their constituents.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Rent Reduction and Rent Optimization – Black Dot & MD7
Municipalities will receive rent reduction letters offering guaranteed rents for a reduction in the monthly rent or a Lump Sum payment. Leaseholders of AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Sprint, Nextel and T-mobile Cell Tower Leases may have received a letter. These Cell Tower Companies have engaged independent contractors like Black Dot Wireless and MD7 International to reduce their costs.
These programs are called rent reduction programs and lease optimization programs. Many Leaseholder fear losing their Cell Phone Tower and accept these new lease terms.
Also, you most likely will receive an offer for a one-time Lump Sum payment for Cell Site Lease. These offers are usually very low and are suspect. Contact us immediately; we can save you from making a major error. Remember, these are independent companies contracted by the Wireless Carriers. They are in the business of making money from your lack of knowledge.
ComServe can help you renegotiate your cell site lease. We have experience dealing with Black Dot and MD7 and will assess your risk of losing your Cellular Tower Lease or Cellular Site Lease. Most Cell Site Owners have no way of knowing the true risk of their Cell Site being “redundant” nor prepared to deal with the sales tactics used to entice Cell Site Owners to comply.
With the mergers of AT&T & Cingular and Sprint & Nextel, there is a real risk of duplicate sites. It has been years since these mergers and they still have sites overlapping. We will help you determine if a real redundancy risk exists and negotiate the best results for you regarding your cell site. You will gain the knowledge from ComServe to make an informed decision regarding your Cell Tower Lease. We cannot guarantee your cell site will not be terminated but we will evaluate the risk of your cell site terminating.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, Nextel T-Mobile are registered trademarks of AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS and T-Mobile USA, Inc. Black Dot and MD7 are registered trademarks of MD7 International and Black Dot Wireless respectively. ComServe has no affiliation with any of these companies.
Cell Tower Lease Buyouts and Cell Site Lease Buyouts
Finance Companies Like WCP, Unison and CCG have entered the cell tower lease buyout industry. They purchase the discounted cash flow from the current cellular lease in place. Also, Cell Tower Companies like Crown Castle, American Tower, SBA, TowerCo, Mobilite, Tri-Star and Diamond are contacting Municipalities as well. All these deals are usually centered on a one-time Lump Sum Payment for the control of Cell Site over an extended period or a perpetual easement. Cell Site Lease owners are giving up future rent payments to these Cell Tower Companies in exchange for receiving the one-time payment. This deal can be structured in several ways to gain control of your cell tower lease and a successor lease.
These companies will deploy many different tactics to get you to enter into an LOI or Option to purchase a Cell Tower Lease. Their sales forces may “pitch” you on “cell tower obsolescence risk”, “ cell site consolidation and merger risk”, and “upside potential” by partnering with their company. They also may tell you they will “market” your cell site for you and split any new revenue.
If you wish to sell your Cell Tower Lease, we can help you maximize your payout. These companies are willing to pay a sizable amount of funds for these Cell Sites. Unfortunately, many of these Cell Sites have sold for Tens of Thousands of Dollars below Market Value because the Municipalities did not have proper representation. You may want to sell your Cell Tower Lease but you want fair market value. ComServe will help you get the market rate for your cell site.
In some cases, the Municipality may want to sell do to the mergers of AT&T and Cingular or Sprint and Nextel. Even though these companies have merged, they are still going through their inventory and deleting cell towers. Also, most lenders will not allow the site owner to use the Cell Tower as collateral. We can supply you with the proper guidance to make right decisions regarding your cell tower lease.
Most municipalities, parks, housing authorities, utilities, etc. have been approached at one time or another to buyout their leases. These offers can be very attractive to an organization that is traditionally strapped by budgetary constraints. ComServe has years of experience negotiating the best terms regarding capitalization of Cell Site Leases, Rooftop Leases and Cell Tower Leases.
We can help prepare and design an RFP and take multiple bids from different companies.
Our consulting services to municipalities includes:
- Full evaluation and audit of each Cell Site Lease or Cell Tower Lease under consideration.
- Evaluation of all alternatives to taking a Lump Sum offer
- Solicitation of multiple offers from all vendors
- Educate the Decision Makers of the Municipality to ensure they have the knowledge necessary to make the best decisions for their constituents.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
AT&T, Cingular, Sprint and Nextel are registered trademarks of AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Nextel and Sprint PCS. WCP, Unison, CCG Crown Castle, American Tower, SBA, TowerCo, Mobilite, Tri-Star and Diamond are trademarks of Wireless Capital Partners, Unison Site Management, Communications Capital Group, Crown Castle International, American Tower Company, SBA Communications, TowerCo, Mobilite Partners, Tri-Star Investors and Diamond Communications. Comserve is in not way affiliated with these companies.
Giving up additional Land or Space with a Buyout
Many times, the purchasing Cell Tower Company or Finance Company will ask for additional Land or Space. This “sales pitch” may be used to entice Cell Tower and Cell Site Leaseholder to sell their rights. This extra land or space is sometimes presented as an “Ease Flex” and promises great upside potential. You may receive a promise of 50/50 revenue share and that they will market your Cell Site for you to get this revenue. These promises should be addressed carefully.
Unison has utilized this with great success. We have dealt with this issues numerous times and can tell you the probability of you ever receiving additional revenues from your Cell Site or Cell Tower Lease. If you have been offered an agreement in which you are giving up additional land, you should contact us.
Unison and Ease Flex are trademarks of Unison Site Management. ComServe has no affiliation with Unison Site Management.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Cell Tower Lease Renegotiations and Cell Site Lease Renegotiations
After congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, there was a great amount of activity building new Cell Phone Towers. This period was the “Wild West” of the Cell Tower industry and many different companies entered to and devised many difference Cell Tower Leases. As a general rule, most of these Cell Site Leases were for a five-year terms and had several five-year options for the Cell Tower companies. These options always automatically renew unless the Cell Tower Company decides not to.
Many Municipalities are currently receiving rents from these Cell Site Leases and Cell Tower Leases written during that period. Because these Cellular Leases were negotiated with Cell Phone Tower Companies during the infancy of the Cell Tower business, most are one sided and the Cell Site Owners negotiated a low rent for the cell site lease.
Now, with the expiration of these Cell Site Leases set to expire, Municipalities are in a much better position to renegotiate their Cell Site Lease with the Cell Tower Companies. There are many factors to consider. The size of your compound, the number of tenants on the tower and the quality of these tenants are just to name a few. Comserve can help you make the right decision renegotiating your cell site lease.
When you are renegotiating your cell site lease, every $10 in rent will amount to Ten’s of Thousands of Dollars over the new negotiated cell site lease. We will eliminate the guesswork and deliver the best possible deal for your constituents. There are many facets to renegotiating a lease and many things the Cell Tower Companies will try to “slip” by you or get you to agree to and you not really understanding what you are agreeing to.
Crown Castle, American Tower and SBA are the largest list of Cell Tower Companies in the US currently. There are also other companies like TowerCo, Mobilitie, Diamond and many others. These companies will approach Leaseholders to buyout their Cell Site Leases or extend the Cell Site Leases for as little money as possible. Many Municipalities, due to fear of losing their Cell Site Lease, enter these agreements and leave large amounts of money on the table.
In most cases, the Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease has been undervalued for years. This can make an offer appear to be very attractive at first glance. These Cell Towers represent an excellent opportunity to renegotiate a better and more profitable lease. Situations where there are many tenants on the tower are likely to be excellent opportunities to renegotiate. ComServe has the ability to determine the "real" revenue on your cell site and get the best deal for you.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Crown Castle, American Tower, SBA, TowerCo, Mobilite, Tri-Star and Diamond are trademarks of Crown Castle International, American Tower Company, SBA Communications, TowerCo, Mobilite Partners, Tri-Star Investors and Diamond Communications. Comserve is in not way affiliated with these companies.
Crown Castle, American Tower and SBA Lease Negotiations
These companies are all publicly traded and all them actively attempt to either buyout the Cell Tower Lease or extend the Cell Tower Lease. They want to effectively tie up the property to ensure long-term profits for shareholders and to avoid having to negotiate with a finance company that may also be trying to buy your Cell Tower Lease. They will have a laundry list of things they will try to do.
They will attempt to get:
- Extra space around the compound area for free
- Get you to sign-off on a ROFR (right of first refusal)
- You to change you current escalation to CPI with a cap
- Extend for 30 to 99 years with little or not benefit to Municipality
- Accept a very nominal fee to extend your lease
- Sign a (LOI) with no end cancelation date
ComServe has been through these negotiations many times and can help you make the right decision(s). It is almost impossible for a Municipality to negotiate favorable terms themselves. Officials usually have most of their limited time focused on more pressing issues. We will provide you with the latest industry data compare the offer to other companies and give you projections of revenue currently being derived from your site.
The decisions you make today will have a lasting effect on your constituents. This is an important negotiation and should not be taken lightly. In addition, these companies are not “your friend” or will “do the right thing” just because they have been paying you rent all these years. In most cases, your rent is far below market rent and should not even be a factor in negotiating a new fair market rent.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Crown Castle, American Tower and SBA are trademarks of Crown Castle International, American Tower Company, SBA Communications. Comserve is in not way affiliated with these companies.
Finance Company Buyout offers - WCP, Unison & CCG
If your Municipality owns a cell tower, it is very likely you have been approached by a finance company with a buyout offer. These companies have created a market that gives owners the option much like the lottery. Do you want the annuity stream or the one-time Lump Sum Payment? This service can be useful and they will give you many reasons to sell. The issue is, what is a fair price? If you should decide to sell your Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease, we will help you obtain the maximum offer. This is not as simple as taking bids from different companies. Don’t leave thousands of dollars on the table. Call us.
In addition, you may receive promises of additional revenue and marketing promises for your Cell Site. While these promises may have appeal, they must also be carefully scrutinized.
Unison, WCP and CCG are trademarks of Unison Site Management, Wireless Capital Partners and Communications Capital Group. ComServe has no affiliation with these companies.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Rooftop Cell Site Evaluation and Audits
Why perform a rooftop Audit and evaluation? Many times the Municipality is not receiving proper rents and or the equipment on the rooftop falls outside the lease parameters. Most Municipalities are not prepared to perform such analysis nor have the time to do so. ComServe can provide this service and determine if you are receiving the proper rents for your rooftop cell site lease.
During our audit, we will compare what is actually on your rooftop versus what the cell site lease stipulates. Moving forward, you will have a better understanding of what is on your rooftop and what should be on your rooftop. Until you have this service performed, you will not know if you should be receiving additional rents do to infractions within your lease agreement(s). A tenant not paying the correct rents does occur and the only way you will find out is to have an audit performed.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Rooftop Cell Site Lease Buyouts
Finance Companies and Cell Site Management companies will approach you with offers to buyout your Rooftop Cell Site Lease(s). They purchase the discounted cash flow from the current cellular lease in place. All these deals are usually centered on one-time Lump Sum Payments for the control of Cell Sites over an extended period or a perpetual easement. Rooftop Cell Site Lease owners are giving up all rights to these Cell Tower Companies in exchange for receiving the one-time payment. This deal can also be structured in several ways to gain control of your cell Site lease and a successor lease.
You may also be giving up rights that you don’t have to. They may want the entire rooftop when it is not necessary. This is more complex than an ordinary Cell Tower Lease Buyout and needs special attention. If you wish to sell your Rooftop Cell Site Lease, we can help you maximize your payout. These companies are willing to pay a sizable amount of funds for a Cell Site Lease. Many have sold for Tens of Thousands of Dollars below Market Value because the Municipalities did not have proper representation. You may want to sell your Rooftop Cell Site Lease but you want fair market value. ComServe will help you get the market rate for your cell site.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
Giving up additional Space or entire Rooftop with Buyout
Many times, the purchasing Cell Tower Company or Finance Company will ask for additional Rooftop Space. This “sales pitch” may be used to entice Rooftop Cell Site Leaseholder to sell their rights. This extra space is sometimes presented as an “Ease Flex” and promises great upside potential. You may receive a promise of 50/50 revenue share and that they will market your Rooftop Cell Site for you to get this revenue. These promises should be addressed carefully.
Unison has enjoyed great success with this offering. We have dealt with this issues numerous times and can tell you the probability of you ever receiving additional revenues from your Rooftop Cell Site Lease and advise you on what you are giving them. If you have been offered an agreement in which you are giving up additional space, you should contact us.
Unison and Ease Flex are trademarks of Unison Site Management. ComServe has no affiliation with Unison Site Management.
Please contact us before you enter any new Cell Tower Lease or Cell Site Lease Agreement.
