A client of ours has a ground lease with one of the big three public tower companies. Instead of rent, the landowner gets a straight percentage of the revenue from all wireless carriers subleasing space on the tower. The client contacted us to help them sell the lease. However, when we reviewed the revenue share […]
The wireless carriers are actively seeking to add right-of-first-refusal clauses (ROFR) to their new and extended cell site lease agreements. Verizon includes standard ROFR language in its cell tower leases that gives them the right to match other offers. The language is overly broad and as such, many landowners don’t like it. As it was, […]
As we do every year around this time, we provide our predictions for what we expect to happen in the upcoming year. Some of our predictions are safe and some are not. Some end up being correct and some aren’t. 1. 5G Continues to Underwhelm Consumers (For Now) . Wireless service providers launched their commercial […]
Coupled with low cost of capital and their recent conversions to REITs, tower companies have every incentive to convert leases (long term operating expense) to easements (upfront capital expenditure).
We applaud Verizon for their interest in preventing their leases from being sold to third parties like lease buyout companies. It is understandable that Verizon (along with other wireless carriers) would prefer not to have an informed third party purchase the rights to a Verizon ground or rooftop lease. Having to work through a lease […]
One of our client's called us yesterday to let us know that they had been beleaguered by a tower company rep who was perhaps too anxious and aggressive regarding a lease extension for a lease that wasn't set to expire for another 8 years. This particular client has a Mona Lisa tower- a phrase […]
HISTORY OF TRISTAR INVESTORS Back in 2008-2013, a company called Tristar Investors was attempting to acquire ground leases under American Tower Corporation (AMT) and Crown Castle (CCI) cell towers. They had some success acquiring the leases using a unique acquisition model where they would “buy out” the tower ground lease by paying the landowner an […]
Crown Castle (CCI) is the largest of the Big Three U.S. tower companies, and currently owns 40K towers nationwide (followed by American Tower with ~28K and SBA with 15K). In September 2012, CCI bought 7,200 cell towers from T-Mobile, and in October 2013 it purchased 9,700 from AT&T. CCI spokesperson says the company is now […]
On Feb 16, 2012, Tristar Investors sued American Tower Corporation alleging that American Tower had violated the Lanham Act, unfairly competed, disparaged Tristar’s business, tortuously interfered with an existing contract and with prospective business relations, and lastly had breached a contract. The suit was filed in Federal Court in Dallas. The suit was quickly posted […]
The article is written tongue in cheek- I was just feeling a little rambunctious today about the myriad of “strategies” that lease buyout companies, tower companies, lease optimization firms, and wireless carriers use to try to convince landowners to do something that is not in their best interest.