Executive Summary
The City of Longwood, FL is located in Seminole County with a population of approximately 13,000 people. The City owned the only cell tower on city land, providing valuable revenue for its reserve funds. Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the City monetized the cell tower lease for essential capital to continue providing services to its residents and businesses.
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Challenges
- Depleting Reserve Funds – Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City’s reserve funds were depleting, and it needed access to capital to support city operations and services.
- Long-term Interests– The City was engaged with a broker that could not work through the easement to its satisfaction.
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Objectives: In order to mitigate the challenges listed above, the City of Longwood needed to achieve the following:
- Gain immediate access to capital to replenish reserve funds;
- Negotiate an agreement that did not give additional space to the buyer for future tenants; and
- Retain colocation language in lease for future tenants.
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Solutions: With a comprehensive understanding of the site owner’s needs, Tower Point was able to address their objectives by:
- Providing lump sum capital in exchange for rental stream;
- Modifying the easement to appease the City’s attorney;
- Adding language for City to have access to future tenants from colocation language in original lease.
Results:
By working with TowerPoint, the City of Longwood was able to monetize its cell site asset for a lump-sum payment that replenished its reserve funds to fund numerous projects and services. Additionally, the firm was able to provide the cell site owner a customized solution that benefited the City for future tenants.