Wireless Site Lease-ability
Wireless site lease-ability starts with locations of the greatest promise regarding RF suitability, zone-ability, and constructability. The lease-ability of a location reflects on the availability of space, condition of the title, availability of the property owner, and disposition of the property owner regarding site location alternatives, leasing issues, and the long-term commitment. Lease-ability criteria rely largely on finding owners of desirable locations who are willing and able to grant quality space rights. Modifications to wireless carriers and tower company standard agreements that give comfort to the property owner without affecting the substantive legal rights of the wireless developer are acceptable and considered.
Property Availability
Property availability is necessary for a location to be feasible. Availability can be subject to change, however. Properties that are not available during the site search may be quickly dismissed as not being feasible candidates. There’s no way to know with certainty that the unavailability of a property will change. The fact a property is not available now is enough knowledge to bypass development work on it. Wireless developers typically don’t want to hold up a project to wait for the property to be made available; they’d rather start on a property that is available now and will predictably remain available in the future.
Urban Search Areas
Characteristics of search areas in urban neighborhoods vary substantially. The search area may consist primarily of multi-story office buildings, public-use facilities, warehouse spaces, retail shopping centers, highways with commercial or industrial frontage, or residential developments intermingled with neighborhood retail stores. Contention exists for all land space that is available for real estate development. One common factor among all neighborhoods, however, is public right-of-way. Space in the public right-of-way is typically only contended for by utilities at rates set by local government. The wireless industry is turning to rights-of-way as a solution to finding new sites and accessing pathways for fiber-optic cable transport from micro cell sites to macro cell sites, system hubs, and mobile switching centers. Height criteria for micro cell site antennas may be acceptable at or below fifty feet above ground level. That height, the small size, and the reduced weight of micro cell antenna systems make existing utility poles or new poles of the same height within the public right-of-way acceptable structures for micro cell facilities.
Guyed Tower Space Requirement
When discussing space for a guyed tower, quote the property owner a carefully chosen number of acres surrounding the area affected by guy anchors. Do this by drawing a square around the anticipated guy anchor layout. The construction manager or A&E firm can advise what percentage of the tower height the guy anchors will be placed away from the tower base. Estimate the sides of the square, determine the square footage of the area in the square, and divide it by 43,560, the number of square feet in an acre. Your result is the number of acres needed to surround the guy anchor locations. Don’t make the square too tight because the guy wires extend further below the surface to where the concrete anchor (known as a dead man) is buried and that needs to be included in the space requirement.
Unavailability of Feasible Locations in the Search Area
In some search areas zone-ability, constructability, and lease-ability may not exist for a macro cell site. Be sure of this before you tell your developer client there aren’t any feasible sites in a search area. No doubt you have tried to make some candidates work to no avail. Look at it again and again. Possibly a relaxing of some form of client criteria may allow one or more locations to qualify. If a right-of-way is available for fiber-optic transport and pole attachment, one or more microcell sites may be the solution.
Maybe the jurisdiction zoning won’t allow the proposed wireless use on any property in the search area. Maybe none of the parcels that could accommodate the facility are available, have the space needed, are accessible, or are constructible. Whatever the case, explain to your client completely why no desirable locations appear feasible. The client might be willing to make concessions on rent or site design to make a potential site work. Consult with your client’s real estate contact about the limitations of the search area.
Deed or Title Issues
Some title issues can make investing in a property risky, in effect taking predictability out of the equation. If the property owner recently passed away, the real estate they owned may be tied up in probate for six months or more before the title can be transferred to an heir. It may be extremely difficult for a title company to issue title insurance for properties where a severe form of title defect exists. If a property is owned by a wildlife conservancy or conservation trust, deed or administrative restrictions likely prohibit wireless facility development on the land. More is discussed about title issues and insurance in Module 18 Title Insurance Commitment.
Does the access road cross other property parcels so that separate agreements are necessary with adjacent property owners? If this is the case, an additional easement may need to be secured at an additional cost. The adjacent property owner might not even allow such an easement.
Multiple Property Owners
How many individuals own the land? If it’s too many, they might not develop a consensus on a space agreement. The proposed rent won’t matter to each of them if it is spread too thin. Properties with more than four separate owners pose a higher risk of not being leasable.
Existing Leases
Regarding collocations, tower companies operating a wireless facility under their own lease with a property owner always need more remaining time on their lease than wireless carrier tenants, who typically want twenty-five or thirty years to start the agreement. Without having more time remaining on the underlying agreement than the proposed new tenant space lease, the master tenant does not have the right to grant the new tenant lease. Confirm as soon as possible that the existing structure owner has acquired or knows it needs to acquire more time on its agreement, which may take months or longer to effect. This speaks to the quality of the space rights that the structure owner can provide a wireless carrier.
Unavailable Properties
Multiple conditions exist that make properties unavailable for wireless infrastructure development. Parcels with zoning that won’t allow the construction and operation of wireless facilities are, in effect, not available for the desired use. Property owners who won’t consider leasing a feasible portion of their real estate for the intended wireless use make their property unavailable. When a property owner is willing to allow the site lease on a parcel but requires more rent than the client is willing to pay, the property is essentially not available at a reasonable price. This affects site lease-ability.
“For Sale” Signs
Properties advertised or listed “for sale” might be overly available. In other words, the availability of a property on the market often presents a condition of unpredictability. This may not be a problem if the wireless developer/client wants to purchase fee interest in the seller’s offering. Timing may become an issue if the wireless site investor isn’t prepared to close in sixty days, however, like many other buyers might. Zoning approval might take longer than the seller is prepared to wait. Other potential buyers may not require zoning approval on the property.
