“Deal or No Deal: Cell Phone Reception”

Astonishing! An iconic midtown office building with high-profile tenants and no cell phone reception on the tower floors.

Amazing, but true - and not all that uncommon. Austin Hanover identified this issue at the risk of losing a broker transaction on a posh, upper-level floor . . . and then identified the solution.

Austin Hanover’s (AHI) first interest is in securing our clients suitable spaces and constructing leases that are both functional and operationally efficient. Unlike brokers who race for commissions, AHI prides itself on a concrete due diligence ethos. We locate and secure spaces that suit our clients needs, both the obvious and the particular. One of our favorite examples of AHI going far beyond the efforts of typical brokers is a series of events we like to call ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’

A private equity firm came to AHI looking to relocate their headquarters. After looking at several spaces they set their hearts on the tower of a major Class-A office building in Midtown Manhattan. Realizing that cell phone and Blackberry connection was integral to their business, we asked them during a site visit to make a few phone calls. Not surprisingly, and even though there were several bars on their cell phones, there was no reception – a deal breaker for our client. AHI decided to see if we could somehow solve the reception issue since the long-time building agent could not offer any solutions.

We first approached tenants on neighboring floors and found that not only was there no reception in any of the top floors, one major law firm had spent eighteen months and invested six figures trying to solve the problem to no avail. Simply erecting antennas at this height would pick up signals from cell towers as far away as Westchester and New Jersey and the competing signals would disconnect any call within seconds. Individual entreaties to the three major cell carriers went unfulfilled and from the tenants’ perspective it seemed hopeless. Approaching the building owner we quickly deduced that while a solution was wanted it was up to the tenants, already locked into their leases, to arrive at a solution, and at their own cost.

After viewing the problem from several perspectives, AHI decided on a course of action. We approached the tenants of these tower floors and formed a tenants committee. Then, with the leverage of this group, we interviewed several firms and selected a company that, though never previously done before, was able to provide a unique turnkey multi-carrier, multi-tenant solution. We contacted each of the three major cell phone carriers as a group and negotiated to both get on their radar and to commit resources. Realizing the volume of business at stake ALL three providers separately agreed with the need for a solution. Each provider offered to install a base station in an upper floor common area mechanical room in the building creating the desired cell phone signal enhancement. We then approached the building owner who, understanding the need for cell reception when signing future tenants, agreed to ‘donate’ the space required to house the equipment of the cell carrier at no cost to the tenants.

The building now had cell reception from all three major providers and the only cost to our client was the wiring within the newly leased area. AHI was informed by the cell providers that this was the first cell phone enhancement implementation for a multi-carrier, multi-tenant group and building owner in New York City, or anywhere for that matter. No one had ever thought of this before.

In retrospect it seems a bit astonishing – here in a famous Midtown building with all these high profile brokers completing deals for high profile tenants and no one foresaw this problem for their client before the lease signing. Additionally, not one of those brokers thought to solve the problem for their client after the deal was done. All it took was a little bit of ingenuity, some hard work and a sense of responsibility - making sure our client had the right solution.

At Austin Hanover it’s not about finding spaces, it’s about finding solutions. Our business is finding suitable spaces for our clients, constructing and negotiating functional and operationally efficient leases for those clients and building long-term relationships. Any broker can show you space, but if you are looking for help constructing a secure and forward-looking lease by a tenant-specific brokerage firm with zero ties to ANY landlord, Austin Hanover, Inc. IS the market leader.