The 15-story Bass, Berry & Sims building in Downtown Memphis will add more illuminated signs to its building to battle vacancies.

Despite sign codes, the Downtown Memphis Commission Design Review Board approved Wednesday, June 4, up to six additional internally illuminated signs for the Greater Memphis Chamber and a future tenant on 100 Peabody Place.

Ted Townsend, president of the chamber, said the sign is a declaration.

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“The sign is more than just the letters,” Townsend said. “It embodies that business is here in our Downtown core.”

Townsend said the sign will be up by Sept. 1, also known as 901 day, and the chamber will host a party to celebrate the city and the sign. 

“For us, it’s a symbol of pride, but it’s also a commitment that Memphis is about business and we are open for business,” Townsend said. “It’s nice that people will be able to look up on the building and go, ‘That is where our chamber is located.’”

Building owner Belz Enterprises, through affiliate Peabody Office Tower GP, first appeared before the DRB on May 7 to add six additional signs — including a Belz sign — but the board declined it. 

The group came back Wednesday with a revised plan of only four new signs, excluding Belz’s signage.

The new signs are exceptions to the Central Business Improvement District codes because the tenant names will be placed outside of the code’s limit.

Brett Roler, chief operating officer of the DMC, said the signage is “a good compromise” of the sign code. 

The new signs will be placed on the east side fronting South Second Street and the south side fronting Peabody Place on the ninth and tenth floors between rows of windows.

The ninth-floor sign will be added once the office is occupied.

The move to add more signage on the building came in hopes of increasing the marketability of the ninth floor, which has “a chronic full floor vacancy,” according to the application sent in by Whitehead Law on behalf of the landlord.

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“We’re trying to show that these buildings have tenants,” Roler said. “We’re trying to show that it has a productive use.”

The landlord said only tenants who occupy at least 17,000 square feet of office space will receive an exterior sign.

“For the past five years, the ninth floor has been vacant,” said attorney Josh Whitehead. “We are actively recruiting full-floor tenants for this floor, which is approximately 17,000 square feet in size, and believe exterior signage is an important component of that strategy.”

The signage size will also match the current Bass, Berry & Sims sign.

The Greater Memphis Chamber occupies the full 10th floor, and Belz Enterprises occupies the full 14th floor.

The building previously had approval in 2015 to install four wall signs, but Bass, Berry & Sims is currently the only sign on the exterior.