The quick answer is possibly.
Most property owners, when they’re approached with a cell tower lease opportunity, are focused on how much cell tower rent is being offered, which is not only natural, but what the cell tower company presenting you the cell tower lease agreement want you to do. Cell tower companies want your focus to be small, and getting you to focus on the rent allows them to get you to accept certain provisions in the cell tower lease that could negatively impact your overall property and decrease the value of your land in the long run.
How do the cell tower companies, more particularly their representatives, contact property owners to do this?
Misdirection
It’s simple – it is just like a magic trick in that they rely upon misdirection. They, as noted above, get your primary focus to be on how much cell tower rent you may be getting. They also get you to focus on the area they want for the cell tower itself, which may be a few hundred or a few thousand square feet of your overall property.
However, even though the cell tower lease agreement that they have presented to you may only be for the leasing of the areas they need to use or occupy for the construction of the cell tower itself and equipment on the ground that shall support the wireless carriers equipment that will be installed on the cell tower, they do not want you to realize that they are also putting restrictions on the entirety of your property that can cause you issues down the road and negatively impact the value of your overall property.
Property Restrictions
These restrictions, per the cell tower agreement, could hinder or even prevent the property’s future development, or disposition of the property, or even a potential purchaser’s ability to acquire financing related to your overall property.
How does this happen? The most common way is limiting what the real property can be used for going forward due to the inability of the property owner to either terminate the cell tower lease or relocate the cell tower or the easements serving the cell tower if those areas would need to be relocated to accommodate future development of the overall property.
In addition, most cell tower lease agreements provide for a very broad interference provision that basically provides the cell tower company with the ability to limit or even restrict your use of the overall property if they, in their sole discretion, determine that use “could” possibly interfere with the cell tower and the equipment located on the cell tower itself.
What Are You Giving Up?
Ultimately, there is no such thing as magic, just a little deception that ends up costing you. You need to understand not only what you’re getting out of at least in the way of cell tower rent, but also understand what you’re giving up in exchange.
Contact us today with questions you may have regarding an existing cell tower lease or if you’ve been approached for a new cell tower lease.
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