Developer seeks sign pointing to new apartments

Sign would last from 10 to 12 months then could be replaced by a more permanent one for other businesses

LANSDALE >> A new sign could be coming soon, in one of Lansdale’s most visible spots, pointing the way to one of the town’s biggest projects.

The developers behind the apartment buildings being constructed atop the borough’s Madison Parking Lot gave an update on that project this week, while asking council to consider allowing a new sign pointing to their project.

“We’re here to ask for your support, and hopefully approval, of placing a temporary marketing and leasing sign,” said John Knott, Vice President for Development with Equus Capital Partners.

After discussion and debate starting as far back as 2011, Equus broke ground in November 2017 on a project to build a complex of six apartment buildings totaling 180 apartments and roughly 15,000 square feet of retail space atop the Madison lot, located just north of Main Street and west of the borough’s train station.

Knott gave an update on that project to council’s committee meetings on Feb. 6, saying the vertical construction on all six buildings is moving ahead, and the company is now starting to lease out the apartments within.

“All six buildings are vertical, all six buildings have roofs, and what we call building F — which is the tallest building, and parallel to the railroad tracks — will be the first building to be delivered, in May of this year,” Knott said.

“We’re a little bit behind where we thought we would be, but given the weather we’ve experienced over the past year, which was terrible for construction, we’re happy we’re here,” he said.

Since January 1, the company has gone live with an interactive website www.MadisonLansdaleStation.com where potential tenants can see floor plans, pricing options, and how to lease an apartment within. Equus has also co-hosted several open house marketing events with local businesses on Main Street in the past month, Knott told council’s administration and finance and code enforcement committees, with more in the works.

Their latest request would use a piece of borough property located at Main and Madison streets, just south of where the borough operates its Santa House during the holiday season, to locate a sign pointing to the apartment complex. Knott and Peter Naber, owner of the nearby Signarama Lansdale, showed their concept to both committees, of a brushed aluminum sign with black lettering, six feet wide and four feet tall atop an additional three feet of sign post.

“This is a temporary marketing and leasing sign, for maybe 10 to 12 months at the most, and the concept would be that, whatever legal agreement is drafted, in our mind it’s a temporary easement of some sort,” Knott said.

“That temporary easement has a beginning and an end, and when it ends, the sign comes down,” he said.

The sign would feature the company’s logo, website, and contact number for the apartment complex, and would match similar signs that Equus plans to locate on the Madison property itself. The sign would not be lit, and would be doublesided, with arrows pointing from Main Street toward the apartments.

“The reason we picked this location is that it is hard to see our site from Main Street, admittedly, so we want to be able to drive as much traffic as we can, during our lease-up period, back to our community,” Knott said.

“We do think by doing that, that will also tremendously benefit, in that initial lease-up period, all of the businesses along Madison. Folks coming in to look at our apartments will turn around and say ‘I’m hungry,’ thirsty, whatever, and go to those businesses,” he said.

So far the company already has a handful of leases signed for the new apartments, and typically find that incoming residents finalize their leases roughly 60 days out from when they move in.

“We’re well beyond that now, and do already have a nice handful of signed leases, which is a good sign,” Knott said.

Naber said he and his company would design the sign, which will be perpendicular to Main Street and parallel to Madison, to all applicable borough codes and regulations, and said the brushed aluminum material is meant to make the sign look more permanent than it will be.

“Although it wouldn’t be cemented in, it would be easily removable, and we would be willing to do that,” Naber said.

Borough Manager of Community Development Chris Kunkel asked who would maintain the sign if it falls over or trash accumulates, and Naber said he would do so, since the sign is almost directly across the street from his storefront.

“I can see the sign every day. Unless it gets hit by a truck, it’s not going to fall down,” he said.

Both the administration and finance and code enforcement committees asked questions about details, and said they had no problem with the idea of the sign and recommended it proceed for a vote from full council.

“From my perspective, please. We want you to successfully rent every single solitary spot you’ve got,” said council President Denton Burnell.

“Now is a good time to mention that that’s the most valuable piece of real estate in the borough,” Kunkel replied.

Councilman Leon Angelichio asked that the two firms make sure the material of the sign not be reflective of light from passing drivers, and the two said they would do so. Residents also asked that the sign be kept far enough from the road not to interfere with the line of sight for drivers, and that no additional bunting, flags, or sound speakers be added, and the two agreed.

“There’s going to be no bunting, no flags, no megaphones sitting on top of it? It’s just a sign?” asked resident John Darab.

“That’s the sign,” Knott replied. “So if you have an open house, you’re not going to pile stuff on top of it?” “That’s the sign.”

Resident Jean Fritz asked if the sign would interfere in any way with the Santa House operated by the borough Parks and Recreation Department just next to the proposed sign site, and Knott and Naber said it would not. Darab asked if parking within the apartment building complex would be available when the buildings begin to open, and Knott said it would; Kunkel added that available off-street parking would be a condition of their use and occupancy permits for the buildings as they open.

After the temporary sign comes down, Kunkel told the committees, businesses located along Madison Street across from the new apartments have expressed interest in some sort of permanent sign, roughly in the location where the temporary sign will be. That sign could likely also tie into the town’s current wayfinding signage already in place, Kunkel said, and Knott said to count Equus in.

“We would be participating in that sign, if that’s the way it works, whatever the charge is, or however that works out,” Knott said.

Code committee chairman Jack Hansen said he would be glad to see the new sign arrive, and said he thought it would be an upgrade over an older sign removed roughly two year ago that had featured badges and logos of now-defunct local groups like social clubs and business organizations.

“We had a sign there for quite a few years, and then it got dilapidated, so it was taken down to make the park look better,” Hansen said.

“Yes, we have to help all the businesses in the borough, for people to know that they’re there, so I think this is a good idea,” he said.

Lansdale Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St.

For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www. Lansdale.org or follow @ LansdalePA on Twitter.

SUBMITTED IMAGE - COURTESY OF SIGNARAMA LANSDALE This is a rendering of a temporary sign proposed for Main Street near Madison Street to point traffic toward the Madison Lansdale Station Apartments under construction atop the borough’s Madison Parking Lot.