Cell tower disconnects plans for Huntridge Theater

A cell tower on the Huntridge Theater lot might derail plans for renovation and redevelopment, according to a new lawsuit.

The developer of the long-awaited Las Vegas project says they are in the final steps of permitting and is prepared to start construction within the next four to six months, but the future plans rest on the shoulders of a cell tower and its managers who have yet to relocate it.

Brass Monkey LLC, owner of the Huntridge Theater, filed a lawsuit Clark County District Court Sept. 20 for relief against telecommunications company Crown Castle Inc. and McCaw Communications of Nevada for their refusal to relocate a cell tower located on the historic theater’s lot. The lawsuit claims the cell tower is a “nuisance,” and its owners have been acting in bad faith and breached a contract in failing to provide environmental assessments required for National Historic Registry buildings.

“We are reviewing today’s filing and plan to continue our ongoing efforts to find a solution with the owner,” said Crown Castle in a statement.

The AT&T cell tower, managed by Crown Castle, has been on the Huntridge Theater lot since 1997 and their lease is active for another two years. J Dapper, owner of Brass Monkey LLC and Dapper Companies, has been attempting to relocate the cell tower to another area on the lot to start redevelopment and expansion of the historic theater.

“For the last two years, they have been kind of half-heartedly working with me to try to relocate the cell tower,” Dapper said.

Dapper purchased the historic Huntridge Theater, at East Charleston Boulevard and Maryland Parkway, in 2021 for $4 million in hopes of restoring the theater to its former state. The theater was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and the Nevada State Register of Historic Places in 1999, which has made the renovation process longer due to regulations and protections to preserve the place.

Around 10 months ago, Dapper and Crown Castle met onsite at the theater to speak about relocation of the cell tower. At the meeting, Crown Castle asked for $500,000 from Brass Monkey to relocate the tower, with Dapper saying they “saw an opportunity” to hold them “hostage.”

“It’s not normal for a cell tower to ask a landlord to pay to move a cell tower,” Dapper said. “They saw an opportunity to, you know, I’m going to say, hold us hostage.”

Additionally, Dapper found Crown Castle had never filed an environmental assessment required for cell towers on historic lots. According to the lawsuit, Crown Castles claimed they have an exemption, but “have not made clear what statute or regulation that exemption is based in.”

“We started to realize that, they probably did not have the environmental assessment,” Dapper said. “But instead of them trying to work with us they’ve just tried to wait us out and leverage us into writing them a check in order to move the cell tower.”

According to Dapper, Crown Castle has not exercised their options to extend their lease on the lot, but claims they want to remain on the property long term.

“They’ve had more than enough time to work with us to resolve this,” said Dapper. “The fact that we’re two plus years into dealing with them, and we’re at the point where we have to file a lawsuit against them, is just really unfortunate.”

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.