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Randhurst hopes new signs draw more shoppers to center's interior

Randhurst Village is giving its signage a boost as it tries to entice more traffic into the shopping center's interior.

The Mount Prospect village board this week approved a request from Casto Lifestyle Properties, the shopping center's owner, for new electronic signs, as well as signage that more prominently displays Randhurst's tenant mix.

The board will allow Casto to remove the existing free-standing sign located in the roundabout by the Hampton Inn & Suites, and replace it with a new sign, measuring nearly 27 feet high and 12 feet wide. It will feature 11 tenant panels and an electronic message center.

“It would be just for the stores that are within the Main Street area, as well as a video board on the right that would display images of basically the types of restaurants, the particular tenants that are in the Main Street area,” Mount Prospect Community Development Director William Cooney said.

There also will be a wall-mounted electronic message center on the north side of the building occupied by TJ Maxx.

Both electronic signs would be full color and display animation and graphics. They would be turned on in the morning and turned off between 10 and 11 p.m., officials said.

The village board also approved a new free-standing sign along Center Drive, just to the northeast of the TJ Maxx building. The sign would contain 12 tenant panels, and measure about 33 feet high and 8 feet across. Finally, the board approved two new, larger directory signs to replace the ones off the Euclid Avenue and Kensington Road entrances.

Trustee Richard Rogers, who cast the only vote against the new signage, said he had concerns the electronic signs would be distracting to drivers.

“I foresee we could have some problems with that sign being so (distracting) that it could create some dangerous situations, particularly with cars or pedestrians,” he said.

Peter Theodore, architect for Randhurst, said safety was taken into account.

“We don't want to create a situation where people are coming into the shopping center and they're distracted by the sign and causing an accident,” he said. “That doesn't serve us.”

Theodore said the signs' intent is to draw people into the shopping center's interior.

“There are a lot of people that hit the periphery but don't come in,” he said. “So the purpose of these signs is really to draw you in and to draw other people in and make this a destination.”

Trustee Paul Hoefert praised the modernity of the sign package.

“Times are evolving,” he said. “It's a retail corridor, so why wouldn't we consider that, as we try to stay contemporary.”

Trustee A. John Korn said the signage could even act as a traffic calming device.

“The only one I'm concerned about is not the person that is slowing down to go ahead and read it, but it's the person that knows where he's going and is in a hurry to go ahead and get through there,” he said.

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