Corey Tower to be transformed into giant digital sign that will be Atlanta’s most glorious landmark forever and ever

Like the Statue of Liberty. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The Space Needle in Seattle’

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  • Joeff Davis/CL File
  • A very nice person named Andisheh gazes at the Corey smokestack, on top of which U.S. Senate hopeful Dale Cardwell camped in 2008

The owner of the “Corey Tower,” the former 300-foot smokestack near the Downtown Connector and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, plans to turn the structure into Atlanta’s greatest landmark: a mammoth billboard.

Atlanta businessman Billy Corey, who owns Corey Cos. Inc. and U.S. Enterprises Inc., told the Atlanta Business Chronicle he’s converting the iconic smokestack - the “most visible object in the Southeast,” he says - into a 80-feet-by-40-feet digital sign that’ll ever-so-subtly display his logo.

Corey has some grand - perhaps slightly wacky - hopes for the digital billboard. ABC writes:

“This will be a landmark for the city of Atlanta,” Corey said. “Like the Statue of Liberty. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The Space Needle in Seattle.”

It will be even more eye-catching, he says, than the new $1 billion stadium that’s planned for the Atlanta Falcons.

“The stadium’s coming right behind it,” Corey said during an Aug. 20 interview at his corporate office, which is located at the base of the tower at 225 Corey Center.

It would become one of the city’s largest digital signs at 80 feet tall and 25 feet wide. It may outshine the Gold Dome, just down the street.

The Cabbagetown native, who first bought the smokestack in the mid-90s, says the project would be a “career” achievement and would help establish his brand’s credibility.

Cranes will start lifting frames into position during two weeks and the behemoth sign could be complete by the year’s end.