By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – When Kathy Lowrey started discussions in Dec., 2010 about getting a large sign for the Northshore Harbor Center, situated somewhere near Interstate 10, she never imagined it would take four years to finally happen.
But that’s exactly the time it took before this past week’s official grand opening of the large sign near I-10, close to the Oak Harbor exit where the Harbor Center does business.
The digital marquee has been up for several weeks and has already gotten lots of attention since it’s quite visible at 70-feet in the air. It has a full color message board to promote the Harbor Center events, and will offer advertising opportunities that are 3-feet X 7-feet.
Lowrey, executive director for the Harbor Center, said the idea to erect a promotional sign began four years ago when she started discussions with former St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis.
Davis was aware of money available through the state as part of the BP oil spill disaster and said he thought there was a good chance the Harbor Center could utilize it since some of the revenue was supposed to be tourism related.
In the end, all the work to get the sign erected cost just over $400,000 since Lowrey quickly found out there was a lot more to the sign than just buying the property, and building it.
“We had to get Department of Transportation (DOTD) permits, city variances and wetlands permits,” she said. “It was a lot more paperwork and expense to go through than I ever imagined.”
Robert Torres, who owns Lakeshore Estates development in that area, initially offered to donate a piece of land in the region near the Oak Harbor exit, but DOTD kept telling Lowrey that the locations were not acceptable. Finally a small strip of land near Honda of Slidell was located and obtained “as a perpetual lease,” she said.
Davis, Torres, Harbor Center board members and a host of other local officials and business leaders showed up for an unusual ribbon cutting next to the sign, followed by a reception at the Harbor Center.
“We’ve already seen what a great addition it is for the Harbor Center,” Lowrey said. “Convention centers like ours all have some kind of sign, but we never had one before this. Now we have one with great visibility where over 66,000 cars a day will drive by and see it.”
ABEK Realty and Honda of Slidell have already purchased two of the advertising spots, which sell for $1,000 a month when signing a two-year lease, or $1,300 a month when signing a one-year lease.
Lowrey said they are already seeing a strong response when they advertise on the message board.
“As soon as we have information about upcoming events we are getting calls from people wanting to know more,” she said. “It’s really exciting to finally have this finished. It will raise revenue for the Harbor Center through the advertising and should help us by bringing more events here.”