BlackDot Wireless and AT&T Still Trying To Get Reductions
Cell site lease groundowners who thought they had heard the last from AT&T and Blackdot after refusing to lower their ground lease rates are being contacted again by Blackdot Wireless with the same pitch- just a different angle. These landowners or building owners with AT&T cell sites weren’t persuaded by the earlier pitch that AT&T and Cingular were merging and that there was possible duplication in the AT&T network that might lead to lease terminations.
Blackdot clearly believes in the old addage: If at first you don’t succeed… because they have a new pitch to try to get some of the higher lease rate landowners to reduce their leases. Blackdot’s people must have time on their hands, because the new attempt is a glossy document called a Site Appraisal Form that they have generated that attempts to show all of the other options available to AT&T in the nearby vicinity. There is a shiny map and a list of all possible alternative sites within 1 mile which also lists the lease rate that Blackdot “purports” that AT&T could get from either the tower owner or landowner.
Blackdot represents that AT&T has signed master lease agreements with Walmart and McDonalds to place towers on their properties at $1500/mo. They also represent that either Walmart or McDonalds will pay the relocation costs to move AT&T to their facility. The pitch is that if the landowner does not agree to the proposed reduction, that AT&T will move it’s cell site to either a Walmart or a McDonalds because of the lower lease rate.
The Site Appraisal Form includes all types of official looking comparisons and graphs- like a Performance Index that shows the rent of the various options in graph form. There is a Current Lease Consensus- that looks like the threat level bar at the airport- which undoubtedly will show yellow or orange or red for every site they send it to. (Because that constitutes danger to the lease longevity)
The funny thing is that I doubt that the wireless carriers have ever even seen this form- and definately don’t use graphs or threat bars to determine whether a landowner’s lease is over market average. However, Blackdot does not show other lease rates that other landowners are receiving in the area- because that might show that in fact that the subject landowner’s lease is not really that expensive.
Ironically, Blackdot is not even sure enough of its own information – there is a conspicuous statement at the bottom that states that Blackdot does not guarantee or warranty the accuracy of this information that they are using to try to convince the landowner that they need to reduce their rent. If they can’t guarantee this information- how can they expect you to rely upon it to make a decision?
If you have been approached by Blackdot to renegotiate your lease, please contact us and we can help sort through the fact and the fiction behind the possibilities that AT&T would actually move to another location. We can evaluate what the costs would be for the relocation and whether it makes sense based upon the expected savings. Lastly, we can make suggestions on how to respond.
If you have found this post in error while looking for information on Blackdot and wish to visit their website- please insert www blackdotwireless.com into your browser. If you are looking for AT&T, please goto http://www.wireless.att.com/home/. If you are looking for McDonalds- http://mcdonalds.com/ or Walmart at http://www.walmart.com/. Please note that Steel in the Air, Inc. is not affiliated with Blackdot Wireless, AT&T, McDonalds or Walmart in any way. Blackdot Wireless, AT&T, McDonalds, and Walmart are registered trademarks of those companies.
