Retail and strip-center tenants
Retail storefront signs in Columbus are usually a tenant problem, not a blank-wall problem. The landlord’s sign criteria, the existing raceway, and the neighboring bays decide the shape of the project before the typeface does. We build tenant panel replacements, channel letters on raceways, window graphics, and short-run grand-opening banners for plaza tenants across Columbus and Central Ohio.
Start with the center’s rules and a photo of your bay. The sign type follows from those, not from a logo that was drawn for a website.
The direct path when the center already has a shared cabinet or a monument with removable panels. We match the panel size and the copy rules, including how a store name and a logo are allowed to sit together. A new cabinet is the wrong quote if the criteria only allow a face change.
Many strip centers require individual letters on a raceway painted to the fascia, so the wiring stays hidden and every bay lines up. Letter height is often capped to the sign band. We size to that band. A raceway is a mounting and wiring panel behind the letters — it is not the sign face itself.
The criteria document is part of the job, not a footnote. Bring the PDF, the elevation, and the bay. If the PDF is old or silent, property managers still enforce whatever the neighbors were required to do. Some centers name a required vendor. If they do, we will say so rather than build a sign you cannot hang.
Hours, a promotional band, or a logo on the glass when the fascia is already full or the criteria limit wall signs. We print and install the graphics. Permanent wall signs and window film are not the same permit question, and the criteria may limit coverage even when the city does not.
A banner covers the gap between lease start and the day the permanent letters are approved and installed. It is temporary. It is not a substitute for the permanent sign the landlord will require, and it is not the school spirit-banner program. The school kickback does not apply.
Retail jobs slip when fabrication starts before the center has approved the drawing. The order below is the one that avoids a sign you cannot install.
Approval from the landlord, and sometimes from the center’s designated sign reviewer, can be required before we fabricate. HOA rules are less common on a commercial strip and more common when the shops sit under apartments. Send the criteria with the bay number. We design to the page that governs your frontage, including raceway color, letter height, and whether illumination is required or forbidden.
A new raceway, illuminated letters, or a larger panel in the City of Columbus typically needs a graphics permit. Replacing a tenant panel in an existing cabinet is not automatically exempt: the city has a face-replacement path, and refacing is addressed in the graphics rules. Tell us whether the cabinet, the raceway, or only the artwork is changing.
Plaza addresses in Dublin, Westerville, Hilliard, Grove City, and other suburbs are different filings. We do not copy the Columbus size threshold onto those cities. Historic overlays matter when the “strip” is actually an older commercial block in German Village or along the Short North. The permit decoder covers the Columbus triggers. We confirm the jurisdiction from the bay address and do not publish fees or review times.
An opening date does not protect itself if the landlord has not approved the drawing. Order the permanent sign when the criteria and a photo or elevation of the bay are in hand. A grand-opening banner can be produced on a shorter path for the opening while letters are in permitting, and it comes down when the permanent sign is up. We confirm both dates with the quote instead of quoting a generic number of days. Most inquiries get a response within one business day.
Strip-center letters are usually front-lit so the bay reads at dusk with the rest of the plaza. Halo lighting is less common on a raceway and is sometimes disallowed by criteria that specify face-lit letters. Non-illuminated letters can work where soffit lighting already washes the fascia, and they can avoid an electrical inspection. If the raceway is shared or existing, new wiring has to land in that electrical plan — we look at it before specifying LEDs.
The recurring retail jobs are a panel swap when a store rebrands, LED sections out on letters that otherwise match the center, and a raceway that needs to be repainted to the current fascia color. We service the illuminated sign when the cabinet is worth keeping. When you leave the bay, the criteria — not the sign shop — usually say whether the letters come down and who patches the fascia.
01
We read the center’s rules against a photo of your frontage before anyone picks a letter height from a logo file.
02
The first deliverable is often an elevation for the property manager, not a finished cabinet. Fabrication waits on that approval when the lease requires it.
03
If the opening is sooner than the permanent sign, we quote a banner with an end date. It does not replace the letters the criteria require.
04
Illuminated letters and many new raceways are permitted, built in-house, and installed on that bay. Panel-only changes follow the face path that actually applies.
If the store also has a delivery vehicle, that graphic is a wrap and it does not have to match the raceway height. We quote it separately so the landlord review is not holding the van. Vehicle wraps
Or email henry@artiplexsigns.com. Serving Columbus and Central Ohio. No public storefront.
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