Lits gets lit: $9.5M display finally illuminates East Market Street

The roof of the Lits building has been adorned with a new illuminated sign that will officially be lit on Tuesday during a ceremony at dusk to mark this new beacon along East Market Street.

In the planning stages for nearly two years, the $9.5 million digital display stretches 80 feet along the 7th Street and 8th Street sides of the building and 160 feet along Market Street.

"It's spectacular," said Mark Merlini, a partner with Brickstone Realty Co., which owns the building with Madison International Realty. "You can be told that it's going to be spectacular and dynamic but it's not until you actually see it that you can see how spectacular it really is."

The Lits building at 701 Market St. is the first to move forward with installing such a sign since an ordinance was passed in 2011 that created a district along East Market Street for digital billboards. That ordinance requires property owners taking advantage of it to make a minimum of $10 million in improvements to their real estate. The lighted billboards can stream advertisements that generate revenue for the property owners.

Brickstone hired a firm to oversee placing ads on the 14-foot high screen and so far has locked in the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, West Chester University, United Health Care and Penn Medicine as advertisers. The rates were not divulged. Merlini expects more companies to sign on once the sign is fully up and running.

"A lot of national firms don't want to commit until they see it operate," he said. "They want to see the video and imaging first and go from there."

The sign will, on the quarter hour, have "Lit Brothers - A great store in a great city" pop up as part of a time-telling device as well as bolstering the building's marketing and branding.

This is just one part of a multi-phased project at the Lits. The façade of the building will be painted and illuminated. New streetscaping will also be installed around the building and, on the interior, an escalator will be widened and common areas and restrooms renovated. An entryway leading to the subway concourse will also get new lighting.

Brickstone is also marketing 60,000 square feet of office space on the second floor for a "large box" retail tenant and will use the digital sign as a lure for a high-profile store that wants its name in light. Another 40,000 square feet of office space is available throughout the building. The office portion of the building totals 585,000 square feet and the retail is about 150,000 square feet.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal