Wrapping the deteriorating 12-story Medical Arts Building with a 98-foot high billboard seemed like a good idea.
But leaders tasked with improving the area say the advertisement is illegal and should come down. They also say that such mammoth billboards allow owners of buildings in disrepair to make money and takes away any incentive to clean them up.
“Much like a surface parking lot, it allows a property owner to collect revenue and put off actual renovation,” said Kyle Kessler, a downtown resident and member of a signage committee for Central Atlanta Progress, a community development organization.
City codes limit the size of signs to 200 square feet or less, said Jennifer Ball, CAP vice president of planning. Additionally, billboards on buildings must be related to the structure on which they rest. For instance, a bank advertisement is allowed on a building in which banking takes place.
“It’s general advertising and it’s too big,” Ball said of the Holiday Inn sign.
City of Atlanta spokeswoman Catherine Woodling said an August letter sent to the company handling the advertising, KH Outdoor LLC, expired on Aug. 27. She said the company “can be fined up to $1,000 per day that the violation exists.”
Like most corporations, Holiday Inn contracts its advertising through agencies, whose jobs are to know how to comply ordinances on outdoor advertising, said Francie Schulwolf, a spokeswoman for Holiday Inn, which is owned by London-based InterContinental Hotels Group. The company’s Americas headquarters is in Atlanta.
The billboard was erected in July as part of Holiday Inn’s national campaign to advertise the chain’s worldwide revamping. The hotelier chose the location because it offers high visibility, overlooking the I-75/I-85 Connector.
The Medical Arts Building is one of 10 structures that CAP put on a 2003 list of downtown “eyesores” that the group wanted to see renovated or repurposed. The others, which include the Beaudry Ford site and the Glenn Hotel, have been renovated or demolished.
Anosh Ishak, one of the Medical Art Building’s four owners, said the owners would like to turn the late 1920s-era structure it into a medical office or hotel, but that won’t happen until the economy rebounds.
Ball said many downtown businesses have had to change their advertising plans to comply with the law. The Georgia Aquarium, she said, initially wanted a giant sign advertising its Titanic exhibit placed outside the facility. But after finding it would violate city ordinances because of its size, leaders with the attraction moved it to the picture window that greets visitors when they come in.
Downtown resident Kessler said CAP’s signage committee is working to come up with an ordinance that is less restrictive for businesses, but will also encourage continuity.
For instance, The Tabernacle is seeking to use larger marquees to advertise music acts performing at the downtown concert venue while Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding wants a free-standing sign to make it easier for visitors to find them.
As for the Holiday Inn, he said its placement on the Medical Arts Building was a double whammy. He, like many, had hoped the long-standing rumor that the building would someday be transformed into a hotel were coming true.
“At first, like lots of people, I thought, ‘Wow, something is finally happening,” Kessler said. “We all instantly got our hopes up, only to have them crushed when we found out it was only a billboard.”
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