Sig­nage Solu­tions That Mar­ket Your Mixed Use Development

Why The Love For Mixed Use Developments?

Devel­op­ers, archi­tects or prop­er­ty own­ers look­ing to cap­i­tal­ize on the live-work-play trend, should con­sid­er the key role sig­nage plays in pro­mot­ing, direct­ing and inform­ing patrons of mixed use developments.

Mixed use devel­op­ments or ​“mini-com­mu­ni­ties” are being praised for their ben­e­fits like reduced traf­fic and pol­lu­tion by allow­ing res­i­dents to use their cars less while also boast­ing low vacan­cy rates and high-qual­i­ty tenants. 

These devel­op­ments add val­ue to an investor’s port­fo­lio, pro­vide built-in clien­tele for com­mer­cial busi­ness­es, and offer con­ve­nience for home­buy­ers, it can become a point of attrac­tion and enter­tain­ment with­in urban areas or suburbs. 

Zon­ing require­ments in many large cities are being pro­posed or are already passed, to accom­mo­date and encour­age these types of developments. 

“Des Moines’ pro­posed zon­ing code update aims to trans­form neigh­bor­hoods into walk­a­ble areas with a mix of high-den­si­ty, afford­able hous­ing, and com­mer­cial spaces. It allows for eas­i­er and quick­er con­struc­tion, which in turn, could result in more devel­op­ment across the city,” the Des Moines Reg­is­ter report­ed in a Sep­tem­ber 4^th, 2019, article. 

“Under the pro­posed new code, sev­er­al areas would be re-clas­si­fied as ​‘mixed use,’ allow­ing for apart­ments on the upper floors of retail shops, office space, and oth­er com­mer­cial buildings.” 

As promis­ing as this sounds, there are cer­tain aspects of a mixed use devel­op­ment that can be chal­leng­ing despite the poten­tial. In mar­ket­ing such loca­tions, it’s impor­tant to devote atten­tion to the over­all design, the loca­tion, and the ten­ants. But most impor­tant­ly, find­ing ways to dri­ve busi­ness to the area will deter­mine the suc­cess of the project. 

How Do I Put My Sig­nage To Work?

Draw­ing the atten­tion and patron­age to a mixed use devel­op­ment is in part due to sig­nage solu­tions. Here’s a nod to some recent projects. 

In Feb­ru­ary of 2019, the R&R West­field cam­pus in West Des Moines opened. For this project, the developer’s design­er and sig­nage part­ners col­lab­o­rat­ed on the design that was then man­u­fac­tured and installed which helped achieve 80% occu­pan­cy in under a year. The brand­ing and unique iden­ti­ty of each com­po­nent of the mixed use devel­op­ment played a huge role in that accomplishment. 

Work is cur­rent­ly being wrapped up on The Chauncey in Iowa City. The mixed use project at Col­lege and Gilbert streets is a $57 mil­lion high-rise, which includes a movie the­atre, bowl­ing alley, hotel, restau­rant, cof­fee shop, com­mu­ni­ty and office space, and con­dos. Unique sig­nage was devel­oped in a few dif­fer­ent loca­tions, each with its own dis­tinct chal­lenges, with­in the land­mark build­ing, including: 

Film­Scene – a state-of-the-art three-screen, non-prof­it cinema 

Donor Wall — a unique trib­ute to the theatre’s benefactors

Bou­tique, Lux­u­ry Hotel — a 15-sto­ry build­ing with fifth-floor roof terrace

In both R&R West­field and The Chauncey, there were cer­tain instru­men­tal aspects of sig­nage devel­op­ment that help mar­ket these loca­tions to the pub­lic. If you’re procur­ing sig­nage for a mixed use devel­op­ment, address­ing each one of these could help make your project more prof­itable in the long-run. 

What Signs Are Best?

With mixed use spaces, although there are a vari­ety of ten­ants, the busi­ness­es need to make sense togeth­er. This allows each to boost the other’s val­ue. For exam­ple, a gro­cery store would be a wel­come addi­tion for home­own­ers in adjoin­ing con­dos. Add in oth­er ameni­ties and you’ve achieved the goal of a mixed use: to cre­ate a mini-community. 

The sig­nage should have that same cohe­sive qual­i­ty to it. In addi­tion to a com­pli­men­ta­ry design from sign to sign, which cre­ates the same look and adds to the com­mu­ni­ty feel, you’ll want to con­sid­er the type of busi­ness­es and hours of oper­a­tion with­in your mixed use devel­op­ment. For instance, will they be open at night and need illu­mi­nat­ed signs? 

Mixed use devel­op­ments are often used as a way to revi­tal­ize a neigh­bor­hood; sig­nage can reflect and bring to life the char­ac­ter of the com­mu­ni­ty. With The Chauncey, the sig­nage con­tin­ues the inno­v­a­tive design of the build­ing that con­tributes to a sense of vibran­cy with­in the col­lege town. 

Anoth­er crit­i­cal fac­tor in the design of the sign is adher­ing to code. It’s impor­tant to work with a sig­nage com­pa­ny famil­iar with the zon­ing require­ments for your loca­tion. Before you get too far in the process, you want to make sure this is cov­ered. The com­pa­ny you work with should take into account restric­tions that might exist around: 

-Size

-Num­ber of signs

-Style

-Light­ing

Com­plete Com­mu­ni­ties DE explains — ​“Mixed use zon­ing is unique in that it allows for the hor­i­zon­tal and ver­ti­cal com­bi­na­tion of land uses in a giv­en area. Com­mer­cial, res­i­den­tial and even in some instances, light indus­tri­al fit togeth­er to help cre­ate built envi­ron­ments where res­i­dents can live, work, and play.” 

Why Con­sid­er Sign Visibility?

Mixed use devel­op­ments are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, but that pop­u­lar­i­ty is in direct rela­tion to how eas­i­ly the pub­lic can iden­ti­fy places with­in the devel­op­ment. As peo­ple check out the new attrac­tion, they may be unsure as to the dif­fer­ent ten­ants in the devel­op­ment. Sig­nage that is vis­i­ble, makes it pos­si­ble to nav­i­gate around the area to find what they’re look­ing for. This seems obvi­ous, but depend­ing on the build­ing struc­ture as well as the lay­out of the build­ings and the sur­round­ing area, it can be tricky to accom­mo­date mul­ti­ple stake­hold­er needs and over­come var­i­ous challenges. 

Many times, the devel­op­ments are locat­ed in walk­a­ble neigh­bor­hoods so when cre­at­ing the signs, you would want to mind sight lines — deter­min­ing whether peo­ple should be able to see from the side­walk, for exam­ple. Addi­tion­al­ly, sig­nage effec­tive­ness is deter­mined by how well the signs enable wayfind­ing. Your sig­nage helps to iden­ti­fy your loca­tion, which is crit­i­cal to being found AND attract­ing vis­i­tors to the area. And in mixed use devel­op­ments, it can be to lead vis­i­tors around res­i­den­tial areas to more pub­lic spaces. 

Who is Your Tar­get Market?

Who is the mixed use devel­op­ment like­ly to attract and how can your sig­nage appeal to that tar­get mar­ket? This is a ques­tion that should be addressed in con­ver­sa­tion with your sig­nage com­pa­ny. Your signs are part of your mar­ket­ing, which should be designed with your tar­get mar­ket in mind. Com­pa­nies suc­cess­ful in mixed use include sig­nage that rein­forces their brand, mean­ing the names and logos of each ten­ant are promi­nent­ly fea­tured. Your brand­ing should be eas­i­ly rec­og­niz­able even from afar. Think of icon­ic signs like Star­bucks or the Las Vegas sign. There’s no rea­son you can’t cre­ate mem­o­rable signage.

How Do I Choose a Sig­nage Partner?

As with any sig­nage project, safe­ty is of para­mount impor­tance. In work­ing with an expe­ri­enced sig­nage com­pa­ny you can be assured that your signs will be secure­ly mount­ed on the build­ing, not block­ing traf­fic ways and made of durable mate­r­i­al that can with­stand the ele­ments with­out dete­ri­o­rat­ing. You want to con­sid­er sig­nage that will look good years down the road. How­ev­er, it’s also impor­tant to allow for flex­i­bil­i­ty in the event ten­ants change, which could hap­pen fre­quent­ly. Although nev­er easy to switch out signs, you will want to part­ner with an expe­ri­enced sign com­pa­ny that has man­aged sit­u­a­tions like this. 

How Do Signs Make Me Money?

Your signs will help attract peo­ple to your loca­tion. If some­one has dif­fi­cul­ty find­ing you, they may opt to pur­chase online rather than vis­it your phys­i­cal loca­tion. We live in an age where peo­ple won’t spend long try­ing to find your busi­ness because there is always a com­peti­tor wait­ing to swoop in and steal your spot. That means, being notice­able pays. 

Sign​re​search​.org put out a study that found that among a sam­ple of 162 restau­rants in the area, each addi­tion­al sign led to a 4.75% increase in annu­al sales. For a busi­ness that does $500,000 in sales, that’s almost $24,000 per year, per sign. 

On the pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion show Bar Res­cue, that’s usu­al­ly one of the first com­plaints — the busi­ness they are help­ing has a sign that isn’t vis­i­ble, leav­ing the pub­lic with no idea the place is even there. It’s no won­der the busi­ness is fail­ing. But a skill­ful­ly designed sign can stand out and attract passer­by and turn a busi­ness around. 

A per­ma­nent sign says a lot. It indi­cates to the pub­lic that your busi­ness is here to stay, not some fly-by-night com­pa­ny. To that end, you could say that a sign helps build trust for your brand. Brick and mor­tar build­ings and espe­cial­ly those with­in a mixed use devel­op­ment aren’t going away… but to stay prof­itable, you’re offer­ing an expe­ri­ence. Now attract prospec­tive cus­tomers in and well-designed sig­nage can help deliv­er that. 

Have ques­tions on mixed use devel­op­ment sig­nage or want to talk more? Find your sign expert here.