The road to ssuccess
Offer me a milliOn dOllars — and i still wOn’t give that sign up.”
“Finally, I begged them. I said, ‘Here’s my AmEx card, just bill me whenever you want!’ ” he laughs. “I said, ‘Get me to East Hampton — I want to sell a frame!’ ”
Wilner — who’s more blasé about his $50 million estate on 35 acres of pristine Montauk coastline than he is about a modest blue sign — is glad he waited out four years in signage purgatory.
— Eli WilnEr
Since landing the Holy Grail of spots three years ago, he’s handily picked up at least 10 new clients — including Martha Stewart. Old friends who had fallen off the radar have called to congratulate him. And he’s constantly asked about it by curious admirers.
“It’s been the most lucrative advertising ever — it’s amazing,” says Wilner, 58. “Plus, the fact that I help everything look beautiful.”
So much so that on occasion, “I slow down and I salute it,” says Wilner, who says he would like to expand his domain to include an additional sign that is “a personal one just for me.”
Jill and Bobby Zarin — who have enjoyed a plum sign for their business, Zarin Fabrics, on Route 27 in Southampton for a decade — would also like a second to broadcast a more personal message (“Jill loves Bobby”).
But, Jill Zarin reports, orts there’s nothing left worth having.
“There’s definitely a waiting list — location, location, location, like any real estate.”
Meanwhile, such vanity projects continue to bewilder local contractors.
“It’s a pretty big nut for someone to pay just to put their name up there,” says Kenny Oliver, owner of East Coast Highway Maintenance, referring to the $500plus monthly maintenance fees.
Oliver runs one of four contracting companies hired by the DOT to do the actual cleanup for wellheeled sponsors.
While Oliver has been approached about knocking out a current sponsor of a coveted location, he says he has never allowed a hostile takeover.
“I have people on a waiting list for six years. I could have put them a mile over, but they want [a very specific] location.”
That’s because a good sign, according to adoptees, is a priceless conversation piece — especially if enough eyeballs see it.
“The one thing they talk about is the sign,” says Zarin. “People have asked [about taking it over], but no firm offer has been on the table.”
Adds Zarin: “Some things just aren’t for sale.”