If you are looking for help with a Crown Castle cell tower lease, you came to the right place. There are three reasons that you might have been searching for Crown Castle cell tower leases:
Here is what we will address on this page:
Crown Castle owns 40,100 cell towers – making it the second largest tower company in the United States. Almost all these 40,100 cell towers started with a ground lease between Crown Castle (or its predecessors) and the landowner. Steel in the Air is not affiliated with Crown Castle – if you found our page by accident while looking for Crown Castle, you can find them at www.crowncastle.com.
Crown Castle (like other tower companies) is very interested in controlling the land under their towers for the long term. By the end of last year (2022), Crown Castle was leasing 59% of their sites while they owned the land under 41% of their sites, either by fee simple or by long term easement. Crown’s average lease term is 36 years. However, there are many leases that were entered into in the early to mid-1990’s that are coming up for expiration which Crown Castle wants to extend.
Furthermore, Crown Castle has retained third-party companies to renegotiate existing leases with landowners. You can see a list of Crown Castle’s authorized “agents” here. These agents may claim that your lease is at risk if you don’t extend or sell it to Crown Castle – this is almost never true.
Landowners with existing Crown Castle cell site leases are typically in a good position to negotiate. We would estimate that in 90% of situations, there is room to negotiate a better lease. Why?
Steel in the Air assists landowners with determining the fair market value of their Crown Castle cell tower lease.
Over the last 5 years or so, Crown Castle has not been that active in building new towers in the United States. They have stayed relatively close to 40,000 sites during that time. Crown Castle has focused on small cell development as opposed to new tower development. Chances are that if Crown Castle has contacted you to lease your land, they have another tower nearby and are worried about losing the lease under it. The nearby landowner may be refusing to extend their lease with Crown Castle. Alternatively, they may be developing the property and no longer want the tower on the property. Lastly, the landowner may be asking for a sizeable increase in rent, and Crown Castle is looking to find backup options in case they aren’t able to extend their lease under the existing tower. Or they intend to use their negotiations with you to discourage the nearby property owner from asking for too much.
If Crown Castle has approached you for a new lease, please reach out to us. We can review Crown Castle’s other towers in the area and determine whether they are likely looking to relocate from an existing tower site to your property. If not, great – we can then help you figure out how much they need your property. If they are looking to relocate, we can help you determine whether it makes sense to spend much time or money on Crown Castle’s proposed lease. We can help you understand how much leverage you have in negotiations and recommend best practices and business terms for a cell tower lease.
Crown Castle’s average ground lease in our cell tower lease database pays just over $1,500/mo. although their leases range widely with some leases as low as $1/mo. and others over $10,000/mo. The average lease rate is just that – an average. This average should not be relied upon to negotiate new leases or when negotiating an extension to an existing lease. Every tower site is different and there are many factors that influence how much Crown Castle should pay for your specific property or for the renewal of their lease.
Crown Castle’s typical wireless tower lease works like this:
Here are just a few of the suggestions we give our clients:
We are experts with Crown Castle cell tower leases, having reviewed thousands of them over the last 20 years. During that time, we have helped more than 500 landowners with Crown Castle lease agreements and proposals. Here what we can do for you:
You may have been contacted by a Crown Castle representative (aka, site acquisition agent) regarding the construction of a cell tower on your property. We can:
If you already have a Crown Castle lease, you may have been contacted by Crown Castle’s agents looking to extend the lease. In most cases, you don’t need to extend the lease unless it is within 5 years of the final expiration of the lease. We are experts in valuing expiring leases since we’ve reviewed more than any other consultant.
Here’s what we can do for you:
If you have received an offer to extend, you may have also received a request to lower the rent. You are probably somewhat familiar with lease renegotiation tactics (also referred to as lease optimization). Crown Castle retains third-party optimization agents who will try to get you to agree to better lease terms (for them). They use certain “tricks of the trade,” like high-pressure sales tactics and implied threats of termination to convince (coerce) you into worse lease terms and conditions.
We will review the situation and:
Eventually, almost every lease holder receives an offer to purchase their lease. Most landowners are contacted by multiple companies who want to buy the lease. Some of these companies also try to make you think that if you don’t sell, your lease will be terminated. We help landowners daily determine what their best options are.
We analyze your site location and:
Some of our clients have great attorneys who know real estate, but don’t know as much about telecom leases. We can help you (and them) understand the nuances of a wireless lease.
If you need help with anything regarding a Crown Castle cell tower lease, here is our commitment to you: