American Tower Corporation is a publicly held company that is a leading owner and operator of wireless and broadcast communication sites in North America, which is headquartered in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Today, American Tower owns and operates over 34,000 sites in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and India.
American Tower-Lease Purchase Request: American Tower is making an aggressive play to secure their tower sites due to their business model being directly tied in to keeping these towers up and running, without interruption or costly relocation. American Tower will most often structure a lease purchase as a simple, lump-sum payment for both assigning a property owner’s remaining rights under the lease and also converting the current lease into a long-term tower easement.
American Tower-Cell Lease Extensions: American Tower cell site leases, currently about 30% of all present American Tower cell tower leases, have less than ten (10) years remaining on their lease terms. As a result, American Tower is aggressively seeking out long-term extensions to their current cell tower leases. American Tower proposes to extend their ground leases for 30 or more years. American Tower most typically demands a lease term extension in exchange for a small signing bonus and/or a nominal increase in cell tower rent. The decision a cell tower landlord makes regarding a cell lease extension may mean hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of a lease, as a few hundred dollars more a month means a lot when paid over 10, 20 or more years. This is an important transaction and should not be taken lightly.
American Tower-Consent/Expansion Inquiries: American Tower is more and more looking to expand their premised area at a tower site or to obtain certain consent rights to allow them to handle additional co-locators on the tower that they own, so as to generate more rent revenue. A property owner should understand what is truly being asked of him or her, including: (1) How much additional premised area is being requested, and what is the value of that space to American Tower?; (2) What is going to be the true impact of any consent you give to American Tower now and for the next several decades?; (3) What is the “true value” of your property to American Tower or the consent that is being requested?; and (4) Do you have the opportunity to not only increase rent but get a better overall lease with American Tower?
If you have been contacted by American Tower, we would caution you before agreeing to anything being presented.
Contact us today, and we will review your lease and your tower site to see what options you truly have and how to optimize those options.
Vertical Consultants is always open to provide you not only references from clients we have assisted, but we will let you speak to them directly.
Results Matter: In 2023, Vertical Consultants averaged a 303% immediate increase in rents being received by our clients. We get results by being the only full-service telecom consulting firm that can handle your telecom, real estate and negotiation questions all under one roof. No other consulting firm can say that, nor can they match our results. “Advice is Nice but Results are Better”
