Residents and visitors of Gaylord have surely taken notice of the brand-new, approximately 50,000 square-foot state-of-the-art building now located on the west end of town next door to Gaylord Cinemas. The 36+ acre business site was fittingly named M-32 Enterprises by its owners Ryan and Julie Lalone because of its prime location on the well-traveled state highway that runs through town. Diesel Freak and Ruffled Feather, two of the primary stores on the property (owned and run by the Lalones at a different location previously) are already up and running at the new location with plans for additional businesses to come.
The super-colossal monument sign that Pro Image just recently finished installing here is well-matched to the impressive new complex. We’d produced signage for the Lalones’ businesses before, but this new project was in a whole different realm. To date, it is the largest freestanding sign Pro Image has produced. Headlining the towering 23-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide sign structure is the M-32 Enterprises logo, which we formed in-house on our SDS Channel Bender SXP machine. The centerpiece of the sign is a gigantic 40 square-foot Watchfire 10mm electronic message center. Then below that are the logos for Diesel Freak and Ruffled Feather, also produced with the Channel Bender SXP machine. There is space incorporated at the bottom of the sign for up to four additional tenant panels for future occupants. The overall frame of this sign is primarily constructed of steel and Alupanel (ACM aluminum composite material) and is anchored in place by a whopping 44,000 pounds of concrete! It isn’t going anywhere.
Before this project started, one of our biggest challenges was creating a sign that would be sufficient for the oversized nature of the property, along with the prospective number of businesses on the site. Our proposed design for the 156 square-foot sign was over the standard size allowance of current zoning ordinances by more than 50%. However, after a large amount of paperwork and meetings at both the township and county level over the course of several weeks, we were fortunate to receive unanimous approval of the variance for the proposed sign.
After all the work that went into this project, we are extremely pleased with how beautifully it turned out and are looking forward to seeing the growth that is anticipated for this property!
