Topic 10- Site Acquisition

Wireless site acquisition consultants (SACs)—or, as they represent wireless facility developers to property owners and communities, site acquisition agents—perform and manage tasks to secure real estate entitlements for wireless infrastructure investment, construction, and operation on behalf of wireless carriers, fiber-optic transport carriers (fibercos), towercos, equipment suppliers, turf vendors, and specialty contractor firms. Our clients are, therefore, wireless site investors, developers, and operators. Once sites are constructed and operational, the wireless carrier and the site owner become facility operators, though they may be one in the same.

Criteria for securing real estate entitlements are initiated by our client or project sponsor, specified in the wireless search area design, and implemented through architectural and engineered drawings to secure space rights and local permit rights. The process to obtain space and local permit rights is called site acquisition. Site acquisition tasks are major hurdles not to be taken for granted in wireless facility development. Priorities constantly rule how time is spent in the site acquisition process. The goal is to avoid or overcome obstacles that may delay the implementation of wireless infrastructure or break project budgets. Site developers and investors desire efficient as well as careful site acquisition performance. If deadlines aren’t met, project funding may evaporate. Time is of the essence.