“Five Million Dollars.”

I repeated the phrase back to the customer with a look of disbelief…”FIVE MILLION DOLLARS?”

“That’s correct”, he stated.  Thus started one of the most interesting conversations of the year.   The customer was planning to spend over $5 million dollars to refurbish a garage. But not just any garage: A 550 stall public parking garage… strategically located in downtown Omaha.

Strategically located in Downtown Omaha.

The parking garage in question is located in the heart of Omaha’s downtown business district – right across the street from the tallest building in Omaha, NE – home to a million square feet of office space. On the other side of the garage is a city owned Civic Auditorium that houses a hockey team and an indoor football team. Less than 5 blocks away is TD Ameritrade Park – a new state of the art baseball stadium that will house the College World Series for the next 25 years.

Virtually Invisible – For The Last 40 Years!

The garage in question is over 40 years old and needed plenty of work, but one of the things it needed most was new signage – signage that would solve two of the property’s biggest problems:

1. The building had been here so long, and was so nondescript, that practically no one knew it was a public garage.
2. It has an underground tunnel that connected to the large office next door and connected to the Doubletree Hotel, the owner of the garage – but again – virtually no one knew this.

Signage Assessment

Our challenge was to assess all the signs on the property and propose a sign package that would put both the parking garage back in plain sight of downtown commuters – and would help market the parking garage.  We started with the outside of the property. They had two main signs that were on the top floors of the garage, unfortunately they were rusted, needed painting and (to be bluntly honest) ugly.

Our Recommendation

Our recommendation was to dispose of the 2 signs and replace them with two new signs, each featuring an electronic message center – digital signage that can enhance communications with downtown drivers.

30,000 Impressions Per Day

The first of the two new signs signs is now situated on the corner of the building on Dodge Street, a one way street – and a major artery through Omaha – where the lot’s operators will benefit from a whopping 30,000 impressions per day.

Limitless Messaging Possibilities

This badboy can be used to let drivers know that parking is available for the hotel and nearby businesses, and that can be instantly updated at any time, to attract parking during the many special events that go on in Downtown Omaha.

High Visibility Signage from Two Directions

The second sign is located at the main entrance to the lot, on Capitol Street.  We took down the old sign, installed a new, protruding “Blade Sign” with a smaller, double-sided message center that can be programmed to share time and temperature – or helpful messages like parking rates, or “Lot Full”.

It’s All About Creating Opportunities

Could your own business benefit from the increased visibility that we can provide?  Would an electronic message center help you engage more prospective customers, promote your products and services, and drive more traffic to your location or website, or both?

Contact us to discuss your needs and ideas, or to schedule a site assessment.