UPDATE An agreement between town officials in Brick, NJ and Cellco Partnership will keep connectivity in place for the next 25 years. As Shorebeat reports, support was unanimous for a plan that will keep a cell tower on municipal property in operation for the foreseeable future.
Cellco, which manages wireless equipment for Verizon, negotiated the agreement. The principal occupants of the tower, Verizon and T-Mobile, will continue to co-lease the tower space. For the next five years, Verizon will pay annual rent of $44,024 for its spot on the tower as well as a ground station. T-Mobile will pay an even $44,000. The lease will automatically renew in five-year increments. Should either party decide to bow out, it will provide written notice of its intentions six months before the lease is due to renew.
Under the previous arrangement, Verizon paid Brick a per month fee of $1,200 with a 4 percent bump in rent each year. Brick also claimed 40 percent of the profits earned from subletting to additional tenants. The new agreement bills Verizon and T-Mobile separately and has an escalator clause built in. The lease stipulates that the rent for each term will rise by 2.75 percent, or the inflation amount recorded by the “personal consumption expenditure price index,” whichever is higher.
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