Four new tenants are moving into the old Office Depot site in the Plaza at Wellington Green. The applicant for one of the future tenants received approval for sign deviations at Wellington’s Architectural Review Board meeting on Monday, June 29.
Real estate firm JBL Development, which owns the building, is currently in the process of expanding the shuttered Office Depot building and converting it into a four-tenant space. Three of the spaces will be for retail tenants and one for a medical office. Mattress Warehouse is one of those new tenants and requested somewhat larger and taller wall signs than normally permitted.
Fabio Ladino, a project manager at JBL Asset Management, told the board that the Mattress Warehouse lettering would not fit well on the building under the current sign regulations.
“We did not know that we’d be getting a tenant that has this amount of letters,” Ladino said.
Instead, the applicant proposed a 29-inch deviation on the primary sign on the north side of the building and a 26-inch deviation on the secondary sign on the east side. With the deviation, the tenant’s company name will be more visible if stacked on two lines. Ladino added that not gaining approval for the signage could jeopardize their lease with Mattress Warehouse.
“It’s a beautiful sign that we’re proposing, and the lease is essentially contingent upon this variance approval,” he said. “It could mean that the tenant walks from this deal.”
Some on the board were hesitant about approving the application. However, the applicant’s team reiterated they are long-term real estate holders and want to ensure that they keep their current tenant mix.
“I would just plead with the board to please consider that this is really a one-off situation that we didn’t foresee,” said Juan Restrepo, vice president of leasing at JBL Asset Management.
Others on the board were more willing to grant the request and believed the applicant that the signs would fit with the rest of the signage in the area.
“I appreciate that the applicant put forward an in-brand sign package that I personally find would be appropriate and in context with the surrounding development and signage elsewhere on the site,” Board Member Nathan George said.
The board approved the sign deviations 5-1 with Board Member Maria Wolfe dissenting.
