Building Access and Speeding the Process with The Model Agreement

By Eric Fishman and Nelson Migdal

Everyone involved in transactions relating to access to commercial buildings can benefit from using The Model Agreement in their negotiations. Many property owners, managers and telecommunications service providers (TSPs) seeking to either serve tenants in the building or use the roof of the building, have already discovered the value of using this document or significant portions of it. The document, formally named the Telecommunications License Agreement (Multi-Tenant Office Building), but more commonly called The Model Agreement, is the product of the efforts of the Real Access Alliance (the Alliance), and is available on the Alliance's Web site, www.realaccess.org.

While some property owners and managers are using The Model Agreement or significant elements of The Model Agreement in the normal course of their dealings with building tenants and TSPs, there are others who remain unaware of the existence of The Model Agreement or are unfamiliar with its contents and its utility to accelerate and enhance the ability of TSPs to gain access to commercial buildings while permitting property owners to preserve their valuable asset. In this article we will explore the context in which The Model Agreement was initially developed, explain certain key elements of The Model Agreement and mention certain market realities and how The Model Agreement is being used to address current issues and concerns.

Background

The Model Agreement responds to the need to have property owners, managers and TSPs have a common starting point for their dealings with each other in matters relating to access for telecommunications in multi-tenant office buildings. With the myriad issues and competing priorities that arise in the negotiation of building access agreements, the theory was, and is, to narrow and more clearly define those issues and competing priorities through the development of a "model" agreement as the template to at least begin most building access discussions that are initiated by a tenant's request that a particular TSP be permitted access to the building. Since the development of The Model Agreement last year, our experience has been that some property owners also have been using either The Model Agreement or various elements of The Model Agreement in other situations such as when a TSP seeks to pre-provision a building unrelated to a tenant request for service, and when a cellular or similar provider seeks access to the roof for an antenna. The Model Agreement was never intended to, and does not attempt to dictate where the parties in a transaction will ultimately end up at the conclusion of their negotiations, but it does provide the interested parties with a solid place to start.

There were many forces at work and many supporting parties behind the development of The Model Agreement by the Real Access Alliance. The mission of the...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT