When selling property with a cell tower lease, keeping the lease is a good option. Done properly, you get the best of both worlds: full value for the property and ongoing lease payments, with the option to sell the lease in the future should you desire.
Selling a property and cell lease together will rarely yield the full value for the lease; however, selling the lease in advance of selling the property may also not be attractive. You may not have other places to invest the proceeds where you will get the same return, for example, and taxes can take a big bite. Additional options, such as 1031 like-kind exchanges, are complicated with short deadlines.
Increasingly, real estate investors are opting to sell property — commercial, residential, land for development and, in a unique case, an office condo — but keeping the cell leases and future leasing rights.
To do this successfully, you should aim to establish balance with purchasers by retaining sufficient future rights to (1) renew the lease, (2) expand it some, and (3) satisfy their requirements for paying full value of the lease, should you decide to sell it in the future. You do not want to grant yourself so many rights that it interferes with a purchaser’s ordinary use and development of the property in question, thus decreasing its selling price.
Essentially, you are trying to attain the balance that would occur in a well-drafted cell lease sale to a third party, whereby keeping the lease is the equivalent of “selling” to yourself!
Specific subject areas where rights must be balanced include:
Permitted and restricted uses by both parties within the leased area;
Restrictions on uses or devices allowed on portions of the property outside the leased area, such as Wi-Fi using radio frequencies, which cell companies and lease purchasers alike desire;
Access rights and rights-of-way for tenants and utilities, as well as who pays for same;
Height and building envelope restrictions on new construction outside the leased area;
Property owner approval rights of changes in the leased area, and;
Relocation.
About this Author
John is a member of the firm’s Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Team. Since 1996 he has represented property owners across the country (businesses, developers, schools, churches, municipalities, real estate companies) on the grant, renewal and modification of cell tower leases with companies like Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and Crown Castle. He has also represented clients on the evaluation or sale of over sixty (60) cell tower leases and future leasing rights to companies like American Tower, Crown Castle, SBA, Wireless Capital Partners,…
Pete focuses on real estate, finance and municipal matters. His practice is transaction oriented, working with businesses, institutions, developers, and investors in real estate purchases, sales, leasing and financing projects, including shopping centers and other commercial developments. He also represents lenders in commercial loan transactions.
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