Westwood Says Hello to Helio Building Neon

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The Westwood skyline just got a little bluer.


The 24-story office tower at 10690 Wilshire Blvd., formerly known as the Saban Building, has a new marquee. It is now to be called “The Helio Building,” with a bright blue neon sign visible from the San Diego and Santa Monica freeways.


The wireless telecom provider announced itself last spring with a $440 million investment from Earthlink Inc. and SK Telecom Co., appointing Earthlink founder Sky Dayton as chief executive. This week’s building takeover is part of an aggressive branding strategy for the Helio name.


“There aren’t that many buildings on the Westside that people identify as being part of the landscape,” said Stuart Redsun, executive vice president of marketing for Helio. “We want to be one of those buildings.”


Helio is targeting the tech-savvy youth market; those who see their mobile devices as “so much more than a phone,” Dayton said. It’s offering exclusive Helio-branded handsets and has partnered with social networking site MySpace.com to give users mobile access to its Web pages. Helio’s service runs on the Sprint Nextel Corp.’s network.


Helio’s 200 employees occupy two floors of the building, and the company signed a multi-year lease agreement for the signage. The building is still owned by Equity Office Properties Trust. Like iconic buildings in other cities, Redsun said Helio’s giant flame logo would change colors for different times of the year.


“When the Lakers get back to the NBA finals, if that happens in our lifetimes, we can make it purple and yellow if we want,” he offered.

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