Company: Circle City Outdoor

Markets:  Indiana, Minnesota

Headquarters: 1405 West Crestwood Ct, Spokane, WA  98033

Phone: 612-616-8133

Email:  fredricksonoa@msn.com

Circle City Outdoor operates a 71 face billboard plant in Indiana and Minnesota.  The signs are clustered around Indianapolis, Indiana and Northfield, Minnesota.  Billboard Insider talked with the company’s general manager Duane Fredrickson.

How did covid impact your business?

Our revenue was down 50% for a couple months.  It’s hard for businesses to pay for advertising when their stores aren’t open.  Business came back strong as Indiana and Minnesota reopened. Our revenues are well above where they were entering covid.

During Covid many businesses suffered. However, there were other segments of the economy that flourished. Recreation vehicles, home improvement and realtors, to name a few. One of the beauties of outdoor is that we are not tied into one industry. Being a small company, we can switch directions within hours. As the ravages of Covid subside, “help wanted”, ads have really come on strong.

You’ve been growing?

We closed a small acquisition during covid.   We had an opportunity to buy some vacant, well priced signs.  We’ve filled them up with ads.  We also spent time upgrading and improving our structures. We are really concentrating on making our product as attractive as it can be.  You can see an example with this picture of an I-65 rebuild.

I hear you got a just compensation claim?

We received a just compensation payoff on a Martinsville, Indiana billboard which we had to take down due to the expansion of I-69.  Relocation was not a good option because we were near an overpass which would have blocked one side completely.

What did you learn?

• Get a good law firm if the state wants to take a billboard and you can’t relocate.  We used the Sever Storey, LLP  who specialize in eminent domain and were happy with the results.
• Do your homework on values.  Stark Capital Solutions prepared an appraisal of our billboard.  The appraisal helped us increase the settlement we received with the Indiana DOT.
• Stay involved. Don’t assume you can hand off a concern to your attorney and wait for the conclusion. John Weller, from our company, took charge of the case and made sure the attorney was always headed in the right direction.

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