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Lafayette


bigboyz05

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One major factor in Lafayette currently is that there are 30,000+ evacuees from SE or SW Louisiana living in the city, which gives Lafayette a current population of around 150,000, the metro area has also seen a surge in residents and is now estimated to be near 550,000 people.

There is actually alot of activity going on in downtown Lafayette currently.

I know that there is a major renovation taking place on Bank One Tower, which at 200ft is Lafayette's tallest building. I know of some new somewhat upscale hotels(Hilton, Marriot, DoubleTree) being built in and around downtown. There are also some mid sized condos proposed for the downtown area.

University of Louisiana Lafayette is also doing very well. It is a leading university in Louisiana wetland research, which is now very important after Katrina. It is also becoming a popular business and technology oriented university. ULL now has nearly 20,000 students, which is second in the state to LSU's 35,000+ students.

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^Yea Lafayette is really doing well right now. Large population gain, large number of new business developments along with residential developments, and it's university is doing very well. It looks like Lafayette has a bright future ahead of it. :thumbsup:

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^It's still got a way's to go before it catches up with Baton Rouge's pre-Katrina population which was 227,000. And it's way behind in post-Katrina population, with Baton Rouge estimated to have over 350,000 residents.

Though the city of Lafayette was growing much faster than the city of Baton Rouge pre-Katrina.

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With the whole region booming like it is, do you think it's possible to soon have a New Orleans/Baton Rouge/Lafayette metro area?

I seriously doubt it, the cities are just to far apart. Lafayette is about 150 miles west of New Orleans, so I just don't see that happening for quite some time. The closest thing you are going to see to a Lafayette-Baton Rouge-New Orleans metro area is a New Orleans-Baton Rouge metro, which could seriously happen in the next few years.

Going on pre-Katrina stats, nearly 2.6 million of Louisiana's 4.5 million residents lived in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Lafayette areas, so more then half of the state's population is concentrated in this 200 mile east-west area. Though again I just think Lafayette is to far away from New Orleans and even Baton Rouge to be included in a possible 3 anchor city metro area any time soon. New Orleans is only a bit closer to Baton Rouge than Lafayette is to Baton Rouge, but going on post-Katrina projections, the population density between N.O. and B.R. will be much higher, and the two cities will be linked very closely in terms of business and infrastructure, and Lafayette is a bit more on it's own in these categories.

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Do you have any specific details about the downtown development you mentioned? I have heard each one mentioned, but can't seem to get any other information about them.

Also, the biggest inhibitor to a Lafayette/Baton Rouge/New Orleans megaoplis would be the Atchafalaya Swamp. The area between Baton Rouge and Lafayette along I-10 is very sparsely populated. Expect Lafayette to grow north to Opelousas and south to New Iberia along the 1-49 corridor.

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Do you have any specific details about the downtown development you mentioned? I have heard each one mentioned, but can't seem to get any other information about them.

Also, the biggest inhibitor to a Lafayette/Baton Rouge/New Orleans megaoplis would be the Atchafalaya Swamp. The area between Baton Rouge and Lafayette along I-10 is very sparsely populated. Expect Lafayette to grow north to Opelousas and south to New Iberia along the 1-49 corridor.

I haven't been able to find any more info on those projects. I read about them on the internet, and saw some of the sites where they will be built in Lafayette when I went over to visit some family there last weekend. It has become very hard to find news on developments that aren't considered to be "major" on the internet.

Great point about the Achafalaya Swamp, it's basically a natural barrier to any growth that could take place between Baton Rouge and Lafayette in that area.Once you cross over the swamp, you can really tell that Baton Rouge ended at the start of the swamp, and Lafayette begins at the end.

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  • 3 weeks later...

^ Yeah, one needs to make sure they have gas before journeying on I-10 across Achafalaya swamp between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. Exits get rather sparse.

I believe the Achafalaya Swamp I-10 bridge at around 21 miles long, is one of the four longest over water highway bridges in the world, with the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway being first. :D

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Back to the subject of development, city leaders are working hard on a proposed toll loop. According to the Daily Advertiser:

Residents could be asked to give input into a proposed toll loop around Lafayette in coming months, an engineering consultant said today.

Consultants with HNTB expect to finish meeting with area mayors and other stakeholders in the next week and have begun meeting with representatives of agencies such as Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to discuss the scope of the project.

The Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission engaged the help of HNTB to study the feasibility of a toll loop around Lafayette Parish.

The website for the Lafayette Metro Expressway Commission is http://www.lafayettexpressway.com/.

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  • 2 months later...

Stirling Properties' ePackage for new Target-anchored shopping center in Lafayette

http://www.stirlingprop.com/shared/public/...e_Lafayette.pdf

You're way ahead of me man!

There were rumblings about this, and I had recently heard it was a done deal but I had no idea it was so large in scope.

This will be tremendous for the northside of town, and hopefully in conjuction with Couret Place and the possible O&S development will spur lots of development along I-10.

Thanks for finding and posting this!

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You're way ahead of me man!

There were rumblings about this, and I had recently heard it was a done deal but I had no idea it was so large in scope.

This will be tremendous for the northside of town, and hopefully in conjuction with Couret Place and the possible O&S development will spur lots of development along I-10.

Thanks for finding and posting this!

I found it totally by accident, to be honest. But being from Shreveport, I hadn't really heard anything about this so once I found it I figured it had to be posted.

I was viewing the Bossier Target ePackage and got curious and started looking at their "public" marketing index... and there it was. Hey, it said "public," so I figured it's fair game. Besides, that's what they use to market to companies so it couldn't be a secret. :)

I saw that it was slated for the north side of the city, so I knew people would be interested in that. SOunds like north Lafayette is finally going to start booming.

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  • 1 month later...

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