Companies with their names atop tall buildings garner community interest and business stature
Having a sign atop a tall building can create a heightened presence for a company — “a corporate identity” — says Julie Stone, associate director of office services for Downtown’s Reed Elsevier. For her firm, formerly identified by the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich name on the building, it keeps people mindful “that the publishing industry is still here and alive and well.”
The main reason a company seeks such signage is name recognition, says Matt Bradvica, managing director of RSM McGladrey, a Mission Valley accounting firm with its name on the 13-story Centerside One building. “We’re the fifth largest firm in the country, and our name recognition on the West Coast is limited.” The signage, Bradvica says, “is overall branding strategy to establish the firm as a bigger player in town.”
McGladrey was keenly aware of the building’s location when leasing the office space. “We’re centrally located and have visibility between two freeways going north and south on 805 and coming east on 8,” says Terry Huffman, the firm’s marketing manager. “The traffic flow at that time was well in excess of 100,000 cars per day.”
San Diego National Bank has signs atop a number of buildings, including one off Highway 163 in Mission Valley. “It has helped impress upon people that we’ve got branches all over town,” says Chris Crockett, group manager for branch banking. “(Mission Valley is) probably one of the more recognizable ones given the volume of traffic going up 163, and I think when people are considering banks they look for convenient locations where they’ve seen the bank before.”
Freeway-facing signage is attractive to businesses. Steve Moore, director of public relations for Claritas in Sorrento Valley, says before the company got its name on the building, that privilege went to Scudder, but the sign was in a different location. “Scudder was on the other side from where our name is,” Moore says. “It basically fronted Mira Mesa Boulevard.” Claritas changed that. “Ours fronts the 805 and you can see it from closer to Mira Mesa as you’re heading east,” says Moore.
Mary Engen, general manager for PM Realty that manages Sorrento Towers, which boasts signs for both Claritas and Chicken of the Sea, says visibility has an extra advantage — it may spark new business. Also, for smaller companies, Engen notes that signage rights can make them look bigger to the outside world.
Along with a distinctive logo, a good high-rise sign must be readable. If it is, it can pique curiosity. “The name Claritas is an unusual name in and of itself,” Moore says. “Most people mispronounce it. (It’s Clair-ee-toss.) People that see it will say, ‘What is that? What is a Claritas? What do they do?’”
For McGladrey, the signs are doing the job.
“When I meet people now and I say I work for RSM McGladrey they say, ‘Oh, I’ve seen your name on the building,’” Bradvica says. That recognition has “helped us when we go into proposals with prospective clients. To explain who we are isn’t as big a part of the proposal as it used to be.”
NAVIGATION LANDMARKS
Bob Didion is acting deputy director of information and application services for the city’s Development Services Department, which regulates signs. Didion says sometimes signage can benefit the community as well as the company. “If the building is nice-looking, it can be an identifiable location within the community because of its design, and by having the corporate name there it is very, very visible.”
Companies with signs, especially in the Downtown area, can gain national exposure. “If you watch national television and they do a shot of the skyline of San Diego, many of the buildings that are visible are high-rise buildings,” Didion says. “If a corporate entity has its name on a structure like that, it gives them a lot of national as well as local exposure.”
Reed Elsevier benefits from some very unique exposure both to fans at baseball games and as planes land at Lindbergh Field. The company “has wonderful focal points for any incoming traffic through the airlines,” says Stone. Also, the opening of Petco Park created views behind the outfield wall that include the book publisher’s sign. “Now we’ve got the ballpark exposure,” says Stone.
Naming a building can provide a landmark to guide people toward a destination, especially Downtown. Being able to say you’re in the NBC building can speed things along when you’re trying to get a client in the door.
For sheer 24/7 exposure, nothing is quite as efficient as a visible sign. The higher it is, the more people will see it. Perhaps Jason Hughes, a principal in Irving Hughes, sums it up best when he says signage provides a company with “branding, advertising, top-of-mind awareness, ease of directions and pride.”
SNAGGING SIGNAGE RIGHTS
What does it take to grab the top spot? In most cases, the answer is permission of the building owner and swanky tenant status. “Typically building owners reserve that space for that prominent tenant or whoever pays the most,” says Brad Richter, principal planner with the Centre City Development Corp.
“It’s up to the building owner to decide who they want to allow up at the top,” says Didion. “That’s generally done as part of the lease and negotiations for the space that those folks will occupy.”
Engen says if a tenant wants to lease three floors, top signage may be negotiated with the lease. She used to manage some buildings Downtown, she says, and if a tenant had so many square feet, they might get signage rights included in the rental package.
For Downtown space, a premium generally is not charged.
“Typically it is simply a function of being a large enough tenant,” says Hughes, the long leading Downtown office broker. “I rarely see an additional fee — either one time or recurring — for sign rights.”
Sometimes an atypical transaction brings signage. The holding company that acquired San Diego National Bank in Mission Valley also happened to own the building where the bank had an office, notes Crockett. “So even though the bank was not the major tenant, the owner held the keys, and he wanted the name at the top of the building.” In that case, Commonwealth Title Co. was able to keep its sign too because it was up before the bank’s.
Claritas benefited from good fortune. Before its name was atop the building, that honor belonged to Scudder, the investment company. When Scudder moved out, Claritas jumped in. “A lot of times landlords will look for solid anchor tenants and offer (signage) to get them in there,” Crockett says. Even if money isn’t the issue, stability and notoriety certainly play a part. Says Crockett, “It’s much more prestigious to have IBM’s name on your building than Bob’s Sandwich Shop.”
Getting the attention of those tenants can involve special deals. “Signage rights will probably vary depending on traffic and location — that type of thing,” Crockett says. “If you were to go out and market 10,000 square feet in that building today and the market rate was $2.50 a square foot, could you get another dollar a square foot for the signage rights” I think so. Often a landlord will say ‘Here’s my rate and I’ll throw in the top building signage, make you the anchor tenant. We’ve been approached by landlords saying, ‘Move into this building, or even if you aren’t in our building, we’ll sell you the rights to the top of the building because you’re right next door,’ or ‘For $1,000 a month I’ll give you the right to put your sign on the top of my building.’
“In our case, it’s part of the normal lease rate. Then it’s at our expense that we buy and install the sign and pay for the power to light it. We have to maintain it, the landlord collects his monthly rent and that includes the signage.”
After getting landlord permission, the city’s OK is required. Downtown the Planned District Ordinance controls the size of high-rise signage, says CCDC’s Richter. “It allows you to have 100 square feet maximum on two faces of the building on two opposite sides.” Often the same tenant uses both sides. Two separate entities could be on one building, but they both must be tenants.
Hughes says substantial size is one key to getting your name in lights. “Typically a tenant would need to lease 50,000 square feet or more to get their name on the top of a building,” he says. “Typically sign rights are an ownership right of the landlord. Notwithstanding that, the local governing agency has to approve it via a permit.”
Commercial leasing brokers like Irving Hughes use high-rise building signs as important leasing concessions for landlords to offer large tenants. “Signs offer branding and name recognition to companies,” says Hughes. “If Petco will pay $60 million for name rights to the new ballpark, obviously signs and corresponding name rights have substantial value.”
Engen agrees, noting the two PM Realty projects, Sorrento Towers North and South, have signage advertising availability. “That’s going to attract more people,” she says.
Downtown, the signage allowed a tenant depends on the height of the building, says Richter. Between 65 and 125 feet in height, a tenant can have a 50-square-foot sign. Between 125 and 200 feet, it is 75 square feet, and more than 200 feet high, the sign can be 100 square feet.
Although it sounds like a lot, 100 square feet of signage isn’t much when it is 300 feet or more above street level. A good example is the Wells Fargo Bank building Downtown, which is nearly surrounded by buildings with larger signs. That’s because today’s rules, adopted in 1992, apply only to new signs. “Plenty of signs Downtown exceed that because they were put up under different regulations,” says Richter. “Almost all the (huge) high-rise signs — Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Bank of America — are grandfathered in.”
City signage rules are generally straightforward.
“It’s usually pretty simple,” Crockett says. “The city has sign criteria that it establishes. If a landlord is going to build they’ll go to the city with a comprehensive sign plan. If it fits all the criteria for size it is approved.”
In most cases outside of Downtown, the city uses a formula based on the number of square feet inside or along the front of a building to determine total signage. For smaller buildings, the formula is one square foot of signage for each linear foot of frontage. “If you’ve got 100 linear feet of building you get a 100 square foot sign to go on that building,” Crockett says.
As long as the sign conforms to the city’s criteria, it will be approved. “It’s when you’re asking for a variance or a permit on a sign that doesn’t match, that the city actually sends notice to the neighboring businesses and residents to solicit comments and suggestions,” Crockett says.
A main requirement for building signage rights is the height of the building itself. “We don’t consider a building to be a high-rise until it’s above 100 feet,” says Didion. A tenant can have a sign on a shorter building, but since it’s not considered a high-rise the sign allocations are straight citywide sign allowances. A tenant can get the high-rise signage even if it’s not over space they actually occupy. For example, a business may occupy only the ground floor of the building yet have their name at the top, Didion says. In a smaller building the municipal code does not allow for signage to be anywhere on the building unless the tenant is immediately behind where it would be placed.
City fees for signage typically run about $500, which covers reviewing the permit to determine whether it is in compliance with the California Electrical Code and the California Building Code, says Didion. The California Building Code — also called the Uniform Building Code — ensures the sign is safely attached to the building. The sign also is checked for compliance with the zoning regulations regarding size and placement. Because some communities have individual planning guidelines, rules can vary.
THE VALLEY WAY
“Mission Valley has sign regulations that do not allow more than one tenant to be the high-rise (signage) tenant,” Didion says. “It allows one sign per facade; one for two opposing facades. So if you’ve got a square building, you can only put it on two of the four sides and the two sides cannot be connected to each other.” Mission Valley urges using corporate logos versus a company’s entire name.
In many areas of Mission Valley and the Golden Triangle, the high-rise buildings were approved under a discretionary process. “That means the owners were looking for some kind of deviation from the zoning standards that were in place at the time of the application,” says Didion. In those areas, approval was under one of two mechanisms. In the Golden Triangle they were approved under planned commercial development permits or PCDs. In Mission Valley, depending on when they came through, they were approved under Mission Valley planned district permits.
Many of those building owners submitted a sign program with their applications to construct the building. That gave the city the ability to see how the package would look, where the signs would be placed and how they worked with landscaping and other features. Many deviations were granted. For example, the Hyatt La Jolla was granted concessions while still in its design phase. “The signage you see up there, although it does exceed what’s allowed by the code, I think most people would agree that it’s a suitable signage package for a structure of that size,” says Didion.
Most areas in the city and county have taken steps to control both building heights and the look of signs.
“Our goal is to minimize signs on high-rise buildings for the skyline view, and that obviously competes with some businesses’ desire to get their advertising up there,” says CCDC’s Richter.
Didion agrees. “Within Mission Valley there are height limitations for buildings, particularly along the north and south boundaries where the code requires that buildings should be designed to not obscure views of the hills behind them.”
University Towne Centre has its own designation, urban village. “It was decided UTC would be a very urban area,” Didion says. “As a result, it was designed and intended to have taller buildings of higher density.” Because of that, it has some of the higher buildings in San Diego.
THE SORRENTO RULES
Torrey Pines and other commercial areas near the ocean face specific regulations. “Areas west of I-5 are within the coastal zone so there’s a maximum 30-foot height limit,” says Didion. Additionally, Del Mar Heights and Carmel Valley fall into districts that were master planned and have their own sign rules.
CCDC has the same idea for Downtown. “The newer high-rises don’t have signs, buildings like Emerald Shapery and America Plaza. Those are really the landmark buildings for Downtown and that’s the whole purpose for such small allowances for signs,” Richter says. “We want our Downtown to be determined by unique, outstanding architectural buildings and not by signage.”
Didion concurs. “I don’t believe we’re ever going to see” in San Diego buildings like New York has in its downtown area, “because of the cost of the structures here coupled with the specific earthquake issues in San Diego and throughout California.”
“Some of the best skylines in the world don’t allow signs on top of buildings,” Richter says. “It’s our belief that good architecture would be our landmark, not the amount of signage.”
Read the original article at San Diego Metropolitan Magazine.