Titan Outdoor’s Proposal For College and Grace
Last year, Frank Teti, the owner of 647 College Street and a financial advisor at BMO Nesbitt Burns approached activists regarding his plan to erect a new billboard on his roof at 647 College Street.
Teti asked the activists for their support for a variance and said the new sign would be 10% larger than the existing sign and would be necessary to bring the sign to “industry standards”. And Teti would be installing a “green roof” and “he’d want to be sure that his sign variance application at community council wasn’t opposed.” This is what the sign looks like:
That’s a 10′x23′ CBS/Urban Outdoor backlight. That’s already an industry standard size for a backlit sign and has been since the 1970s.
But it turns out Frank Teti wanted to build a superboard. This, it turned out, was his plan:
The current CBS/Urban sign on the roof of Teti’s building is non-conforming and the structure is owned by CBS. That means that CBS can pay Teti as little as it wants for this sign and neither Teti nor any other advertising company can ever replace it without a variance. Even a third party fascia sign on the easterly wall of the building would not conform due to proximity to the CBS sign across the street. It’s only a matter of time before CBS’ leasing manager, Stephen McGregor, lowers Teti’s lease rate on this non-conforming sign for trying to squeeze CBS out of what is by far the most valuable billboard on College Street. Stephen is just that kind of guy.Joe Clark writes about OneStop and the TTC today.
