When Raising Cane’s opened its first downtown location Thursday in the historic Richoux Building at the intersection of Florida and Third streets, many people mistakenly assumed the black tarp covering the iconic, neon Coca-Cola sign atop the building was part of the grand opening festivities.
In fact, the building’s owner, Mike Crouch, had the sign covered on the eve of Cane’s opening because of a dispute over advertising revenues that Crouch’s attorney says his client is owed by Coca-Cola.
In a letter dated Wednesday to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Baton Rouge, the Downtown Development District and the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, attorney Jim Clary says the sign has been disconnected and shrouded—and will remain so until “an agreement is reached with [Crouch] regarding the use of the sign. Such agreement must include … a fair agreement remunerating our client for market rate advertisement charges for use of the sign.”
The letter took many by surprise, including Coca-Cola—which recently spent $20,000 having the sign fully restored—and the Arts Council, which has been under the impression it owns the sign since 2002. That is when the Richoux family sold the building to attorney/developer Danny McGlynn and donated the historic sign to the Arts Council.
Documents obtained by Daily Report show the donation was signed by the Richoux family, the Arts Council and the Downtown Merchants Association, which has paid more than $4,000 per year ever since to maintain the sign.
In Clary’s letter Wednesday, the attorney suggests Crouch—not the Arts Council—owns the sign and that the donation papers are invalid. But McGlynn says that’s simply untrue. He helped draft the donation papers.
What’s more, when McGlynn sold the building last year to Crouch, he says Crouch demanded $5,000 off the sale price because the sign was not included in the deal.
“They beat me up on the sale price of the building because of the sign belonging to the Arts Council,” says McGlynn. “They said that devalued the property, and they got several thousand dollars off of me … now he is trying to get something he has already been paid for paid for again.”
Crouch did not return a call seeking comment, and his attorney would not discuss details of the ownership of the sign.
In a statement, Clary says only that, “all of the details regarding the preservation [of the sign] will be addressed in due course, and all will be well.”
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman is not at all certain, however, that the story will have a happy ending. She says the company is very worried about the structural integrity of the sign, which could be damaged by being shrouded.
“The draping over it puts it at great risk,” says Melanie Clark. “It was just fully restored, and there is a great possibility it will be damaged by being covered.”
Clark says Coca-Cola undertook the recent renovation of the sign on its own and that Crouch was fully aware of the work the company was doing. She says the company did the renovation because, even though the sign had been well-maintained, it is old and needed a complete overhaul to be restored to optimum condition.
The controversy has left the downtown community flummoxed and angry. Metro Councilman John Delgado, whose downtown office overlooks the beloved sign, says Crouch’s actions are “offensive and disrespectful.”
Delgado says if Crouch does not remove the shroud over the sign he will introduce an ordinance at next week’s council meeting that would impose a $500 fine on anyone who covers advertising signage downtown.
“When someone attacks Baton Rouge like that—and I consider this an attack on our culture downtown—he is not going to get away with it,” Delgado says.
