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Rock Solid Leases

Tower Lease 101 > Rock Solid Leases

Cell Tower Representation

Attorneys and real estate professionals retain Terabonne to represent them in cell tower leasing matters. Here’s why: they know once signed, the leases will be rock solid and there’s no way to rescind the contract without costing property owners a lot of money. Wireless carriers have lots of lawyers to defend the terms of their leases. They also will not want to set a precedence by letting a property owner break their lease simply because the owners changed their minds. Cellular networks are dependent on all cell sites working in unison. Therefore, allowing property owners to terminate leases on a whim would put any system designs in continual flux, which is the carriers’ main reason for securing long term leases.

$368,058 Quoted To Rebuild A Tower Excluding Professional Services Fees

Rock Solid Leases

A rock solid cell tower lease, when negotiated, designed, and managed by Terabonne, means it must contemplate a design that works well for how our clients use their property for decades to come. It is not enough that we negotiate a cell tower lease. We feel anyone can do that with varying degrees of long-term success. Like building a house. There are grades of quality and longevity to a project. Clearly, a cell tower must have a 50-year life planned into it. How a commercial building owner prefers his tower lease is different from a farmer in rural America. How a retiring property owner with estate planning in mind views his tower lease will be different than a corporation needing to drive up alternative income to their operation. At Terabonne, every lease goes through a pre-flight checklist to assure that proper terms are negotiated to fit the requirements of each of our clients. We consider the growth of the tower, technology upgrades, access, road maintenance, risks, increasing vehicular traffic and revenue sharing with our clients in certain instances. We think about trenching, traffic implications, repairs and maintenance, water run-offs, core drilling, noise abatement, lighting, RF interference, and who will pay for them. We deal with liabilities and damages, and negotiate hard and early on terms that are most important to our clients. This, to us, makes rock solid leases. You should not expect anything else from your cell tower consultant.

Cell Tower Relocations - Special Circumstances

In special circumstances where the property owner is well-funded and truly must have the tower removed from the property (such as a housing developer in California), wireless carriers will require that a replacement site be built at the property owner’s cost. Depending on the area, the full turn-key cost of a replacement cell tower, inclusive of all professional services costs, legal fees, moving from old to new locations, paying for the equipment and utility change outs, is upward of $500,000. Terminating a cell tower lease is possible, but it has to be done under the cooperation of the wireless carrier or tower company at full reimbursements to them. In these situations, we have represented real estate developers in designing and building new replacement towers for wireless carriers at our clients’ full cost. The leases are absolutely binding and the cost is very expensive. Never sign any documents with multi-billion dollar companies if you are not absolutely sure you have the right team on your side.

Consult the Experts

In situations where a property owner is unsure about their options, the best solution is to seek assistance from Terabonne at the start of any wireless projects to make sure it is the right decision. Do not be mesmerized by the money. Do not focus on one term of the entire lease. Bring in a team that handles all the terms for you, then clearly and thoughtfully presents and explains each component for your review. A team that has engineered, designed, leased, zoned, constructed, negotiated and managed cell towers for the past decades will serve you well. The money will come on its own if everything else is properly identified, designed and negotiated on your behalf.

Need Advice?

Let’s discuss your cell tower opportunity.  We will share with you what we know about your cell tower ground lease.  Never a fee until we agree to work together and we deliver all-inclusive results to your satisfaction.  Unheard of assurance and confidence.  Please email, call or  send us a message anytime.     

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Edmonds, WA 98026

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A ROFR grants the tower owner the right to match an offer by some third party who makes an offer to purchase your lease that you accept.

Radio Frequency engineers who specialize in the radio wave propagation. These are the engineers to define cell tower locations. 

Companies who build towers and lease back to wireless carriers.  These companies almost always receive Search Rings from wireless carriers defining where carriers need towers to be built.

Geographical areas depicted in a circle (ring) drawn by radio frequency (RF) engineers defining the areas requiring new cell towers and technical parameters surrounding such designs.

A person hired by the wireless carrier to contact property owners to discuss lease terms. This role has evolved to be landlord facing rather than lease negotiations.

A person who specializes in land use matters well knowledgeable in its jurisdictional requirements.

Attorneys retained by wireless carriers authorized to review legal terms but never allowed to negotiate financial nor technical terms of the lease because they lack the technincal skills.

Crown Castle, American Tower ATC, SBA Towers are the “Big Three” tower companies.

Companies that purchase cell tower leases with the purpose of repackaging (aggregating) them in a larger portfolio and selling them for a profit at a later time.