New gateway sign for Carytown caps yearslong effort

The Art Deco-style sign would be lighted with a combination of neon tubing and LED lights. (City documents)

A decade-plus effort to provide new signage for the entrance to Carytown has reached the finish line.

City approval is expected this week for a new gateway sign in the 3500 block of Cary Street that would mark the start of the nine-block shopping district for drivers and pedestrians traveling east on the one-way road.

The sign would be suspended above Cary Street via steel wires attached to poles.

The two-sided, Art Deco-style sign with neon tubing and LED lights would be suspended above the road via steel wires attached to two 25-foot steel poles, creating an arch-like entrance that cars would pass under just before Cary’s intersection with Nansemond Street. The green- and white-colored sign with gold accents reads “Carytown” with “Richmond VA” below it and “Est 1938” above.

In the works since 2011, the sign will replace a decades-old wooden sign that had stood beside Cary across from Thompson Street. That sign, which had replaced an older one from the 1990s, fell down last year, providing further motivation for a replacement.

The previous wooden sign fell down last year.

The Carytown Merchants Association has driven the sign effort, which board member and city liaison Kelley Banks said was hampered over the years by challenges with location, design and funding.

Working with city officials, CMA secured the funding via American Rescue Plan funds that the city had received to help businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The federal funds are covering the roughly $100,000 cost for the sign, Banks said.

“That was a key to the city being able to fund the sign and get us over the finish line,” said Banks, co-owner of Merrymaker Fine Paper.

Kelley Banks

“What has resulted is a product of persistence and volunteer effort, and really good collaboration with the city, on finally realizing the sign in a very permanent and what I think is going to be something that really has impact, not just for Carytown but for Richmond, and an identity of one of the most important parts of Richmond.”

Banks, who joined the CMA board two years ago specifically to assist the sign effort, said the original plan was for another ground sign to replace the older one, based on the thinking that a gateway sign would be too expensive.

The group hired design firm Campfire & Co. to create a branding package, but the ground sign plan hit a roadblock when the preferred location was found to be within right-of-way controlled by the Virginia Department of Transportation, which Banks said doesn’t allow permanent signage on its property.

Further prolonging the effort was the need for consensus among CMA’s members on the design and the cost, which was found to be lower with the wire suspension approach than with a full arch or more structural sign.

Design cues were taken from Cary Court Shopping Center.

Local manufacturer Wellcraft MFG designed the gateway sign, taking design cues from the Art Deco signage of the 1930s-era Carytown Court Shopping Center and the 1928 Byrd Theater. CMA is contracting with Wellcraft for annual refurbishment and repair as needed, and Glen Allen-based Messer Contracting is signed on to build the sign and the concrete footings needed for the poles.

The sign’s location is aligned with a gap between buildings at Carytown Exchange. It would cross Cary between the Torchy’s Tacos storefront and the Kroger parking lot.

The structure is designed to sustain high winds, according to a city planning report, which recommends approval and notes support for the sign from the owner of the Kroger-anchored International Shopping Center and the property manager of Carytown Exchange.

The location as viewed from Carytown Exchange on the north side of the street, facing south.

The Richmond Planning Commission is slated to approve a final review by the city’s Urban Design Committee at its meeting this Tuesday as part of its consent agenda, in which business considered to be routine is voted on as a block.

If approved as expected, Banks said CMA is aiming to have the sign installed in time for this year’s Carytown Watermelon Festival in August.

While the path to this point has been winding and arduous for the CMA’s 75 or so members, Banks said they are pleased with the final result of a gateway entrance to Carytown’s roughly 200 businesses.

“It was kind of serendipitous for (the ground sign) to be rejected, because it, I think, got us something better, and something that I hope could trickle to other special parts of Richmond like Scott’s Addition, Jackson Ward, Shockoe Bottom, the Fan,” Banks said.

“The merchants association was the driving force behind this, and that’s small business owners in Richmond and volunteer time,” she said. “We spent a lot of time talking about this amongst our members, showing it to other businesses in Carytown, getting input, getting feedback. I think to most people it’s going to seem like a surprise, but for a lot of people, we’ve been working on it for a long time.”

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