Cliff Steinberg, the landlord of 161 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, has encountered difficulties with one of his tenants, Dish Wireless. The company, which installed a cell tower on the building’s roof in 2022, stopped paying rent several months ago and has not responded to Steinberg’s attempts at communication.
“There’s no one to talk to. No one returns your calls,” Steinberg said about Dish. “It’s dead.”
This situation is not unique to Steinberg. Across New York City, landlords of both multifamily and commercial buildings are facing similar issues with Dish Wireless. Telecom carriers such as Dish, T-Mobile, and Verizon lease rooftop space from around 1,500 building owners in New York for their equipment. However, Dish has reportedly ceased payments to multiple landlords while leaving its equipment onsite. In other parts of the United States, major telecom companies have taken legal action against Dish for defaulting on its obligations.
The challenges highlight a particular vulnerability in this segment of the real estate market. Landlords often rely on income from these leases—typically ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 per month—to support property costs. Removing cell towers can be expensive; Meir Waldman, CEO of Nexus Towers, noted that deconstructing a tower could cost approximately $75,000.
Most rooftop cell tower leases span 25 to 30 years and require significant upfront investment by carriers—about $250,000 per site—which discourages frequent relocation.
Steinberg described his experience: “No one ever saw this coming,” he said. “This was really unexpected. And it’s harsh.”
In 2019, federal authorities allowed Dish to build its own network as part of efforts to expand 5G infrastructure nationwide. Since then, however, Dish appears to have struggled with its financial commitments. American Tower reported that Dish defaulted on $200 million in payments and joined Crown Castle in filing lawsuits against the company over unpaid bills. Crown Castle is seeking $3.5 billion in future payments and has announced workforce reductions due to the dispute.
Both companies are now part of the American Wireless Builders Coalition alongside organizations like the New York Apartment Association.
“This widespread nonperformance is already causing financial strain, work stoppages, decommissioning concerns, and uncertainty across the wireless and communications services ecosystem,” wrote the coalition in a letter addressed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Dish did not respond to requests for comment regarding these allegations but stated in court filings that it considers many leased sites “unusable” due to what it called “unprecedented and unforeseeable” regulatory actions—including an FCC investigation into EchoStar (Dish’s parent company) that led them to sell licenses to SpaceX and AT&T.
Some landlords have managed better than others by selling their rights to future rental income from cell towers to third-party investors—a move that can provide much-needed liquidity or help pay off loans amid declining property values for rent-stabilized buildings.
“The cell towers are their savior,” Waldman said. “When they entered into this lease 15 years ago, little did they know that this is going to be what is going to help them keep the building afloat in this interesting time.”
Romain Sinclair, a broker specializing in multifamily sales transactions in New York City, explained that these lease arrangements can influence property trades: buyers sometimes sell off cell tower income streams separately after purchasing buildings.
“You can buy a building and then parcel out the cell tower and sell that and get yourself a lower basis on the overall purchase,” Sinclair said.
For Steinberg at 161 Lafayette Street, uncertainty remains about how or when he will resolve his situation with Dish Wireless or remove their equipment—a process he estimates could cost between $50,000 and $100,000. He considered traveling directly to EchoStar headquarters but doubts it would yield results.
Steinberg worries about broader fallout if companies like Dish cannot meet their obligations: “Companies will go out of business over this,” he said. “I’ll never put a satellite on my roof again.”
