American Tower is no stranger to the hospitality business. The company recently completed a multimillion-dollar infrastructure project for Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas. The challenge the company faced was completing the project while the casino was still fully operational.
“We’ve been in the distributed antenna system (DAS) business since the early 2000s, and our initial properties with DAS were casinos and shopping malls,” says Alex Gamota, the company’s vice president of real estate. “Really, there are two driving factors for these projects. One is that wireless carriers want to provide for their customers in these types of properties—in particular, year-round high-traffic properties. Second, the property owner’s desire to minimize work crews in their facilities.”
During these projects, American Tower is in constant communication with a property owner’s operational team so work crews don’t disrupt day-to-day activities.
“Security is also a priority,” Gamota says. “We make sure all our workers are badged so there are no accessibility issues that could slow down a project. We also seek out partnerships with contractors who have working knowledge of the property. . . . We have a partnership model where we work with the right vendors to get the job done. As a result, we completed the project in just under 120 days.”
