Fifteen for 40

Stony Point finalizes long term lease for cell towers

By CHERYL SLAVIN

During last week’s executive session following its regular public meeting, the Stony Point Town Board unanimously approved long term leases for the two cell towers situated on town property, one currently located at the police station and the other at the golf course.

The total revenue resulting from these transactions, to be paid in a lump sum to the town, will be 2.227 million dollars—1.5 million for the police station tower and $727,000 for the golf course tower. The police station tower will be leased by Global Tower Properties of Boca Raton, FL, for a term of 38 years. The golf course tower lease went to TowerCo located out of Charlotte-Gastonia, NC., for a 40 year term. The total value of the lease deal is roughly equivalent to 15 year’s worth of rent at the rate paid by the current telecommunications vendors.

Supervisor Geoff Finn explained to the Rockland County Times that the negotiations for the leases have been taking place over the past four or five months, spurred in part by the recent departure of one of the tower’s telecommunications lessees. In light of changing technology and the possibility that it could lose more telecommunications vendors in the coming years (many of whom do not have long-term agreements with the town), the board determined that leasing the towers outright to a third party for a guaranteed lump sum payment was the best way to maximize revenue for the town. He stated that this is not a sale of town property; technically it is the assignment of all the leases over the course of the next 38 or 40 years with the telecommunications companies using the towers.

Finn further explained that the board voted on this issue in executive session, rather than during the public portion of the August meeting, because it involved on-going confidential negotiations that had taken place over a period of months. He emphasized that the town had been in talks with a number of bidders, and that the board accepted the two highest offers for the tower leases.