Cell Tower Property Ownership

[Nick Meers]

Is anyone aware of how to find out if there are any cell towers up for leasing? Also, has anyone been through the process of getting one placed on a property, or is there anyone who currently is leasing one on their property? I've heard if it you haven't been approached, to not waste your time on contacting carriers/tower companies. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I'm from the Saratoga Springs, NY area.

[Matt W.]

We have a cell tower lease in Los Angeles and we did not contact the provider. We have the tallest building in the surrounding area but only by 10-20 feet maybe. Three of four corners of the square shaped roof have arrays attached behind an extended parapet wall which they paint matched perfectly, and lines and trays were put over existing flat roof with cables going down the side of the building to a fenced off power supply/telecom area.

The lease started at $1600 for 5 years and they have 5x 5 year renewals at 10% bumps each time. So far things have gone well, we haven't experienced problems with much other than rats using the cable tray to climb up the side of the building onto the roof and then get into units via vent stacks. The maintenance crew came out and handled the access points while we handled the pest control operator, but I think we were reimbursed.

We tried getting them to look at 1-2 more buildings with a similar height profile in other areas but nothing panned out, probably because surrounding buildings were mostly just as tall or they already had good coverage.