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Wow...sounds impressive...sleek/contemporary? Not words you here much around here...is this going to be on the NE corner of the Highland/Bluebonnet of the NW corner? Should be interesting to see how they integrate this project with the pretty landscape with Bluebonnet Swamp nearby...

I don't know exactly which of the road it would be at the Highland/Bluebonnet intersection. This could bring in a lot of young professionals to the area can't wait.  

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Glad this is happening. I agree that it should have been built in Mid City. 

 

Does anyone here watch Parks and Rec? One of the last episodes a large tech company moved their global HQ to the small town. Residents were opposed because the new HQ would destroy important land so to accomplish some political goals, the main characters got the company to put their headquarters in a North Baton Rouge like area and donate the other land to become a new park. I think something similar should have happened here, but I guess the city is just desperate to get more companies. 

 

Though I'm not worried. I'm sure there will be a company that will put something in North Baton Rouge that will lead to redevelopment.

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The company is relocating from the tech park on Florida to this new area. I'm sure they considered where their employees live (current and future) prior to making this choice. It sounds like they are going after young professionals. I don't see many young professionals signing up to live in NBR. I'm not saying gentrification can't happen or the area can't one day be desireable but as it stands today it's not IMO.

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The company is relocating from the tech park on Florida to this new area. I'm sure they considered where their employees live (current and future) prior to making this choice. It sounds like they are going after young professionals. I don't see many young professionals signing up to live in NBR. I'm not saying gentrification can't happen or the area can't one day be desireable but as it stands today it's not IMO.

That's my thinking with this too. 

 

The only way for NBR to become desirable is with gentrification and that will require significant investment from both the private and public sectors. Much like downtown BR I suspect the public investment will have to come first. 

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Perkins Palms owners buy land for new lot to ease parking problems

 

Parking can be extremely hard to find during peak hours at the Perkins Palms mixed-use development, and its owners have bought a vacant tract of land adjacent to the development to help address the problem.

In a deal that closed Wednesday, Perkins Palms Parking LLC purchased a 1.36-acre tract from Investar Bank for $700,000. The land is behind the Investar branch that is situated in front of Perkins Palms, which is located on Perkins between Essen Lane and Kenilworth Parkway. F. Randall Garrett, attorney for the Perkins Palms owners, says it’s not clear yet exactly how many parking spaces will be created on the land, as the project is still in the planning phase.

As for a timeline on development of the parking lot, Garrett says, “As fast as they can get it built, because it is a problem for the area,” adding, “I’ve heard estimates of three to four months.”

With the addition of The Rum House in front of Perkins Palms in recent years, parking has increasingly become tight in the area. Investar limits its lot to customers, meaning those looking for parking to shop or dine at Perkins Palms or The Rum House are not able to use it. It’s not uncommon to see a tow truck trolling the lot during busy evening hours or a police cruiser sitting in it to ensure violators are towed.

While the new lot will help ease the problem, it won’t come free.

“It’s going to be a paid parking situation, so anyone who wants to use it can use it,” Garrett says.            https://www.businessreport.com/article/perkins-palms-owners-buy-land-new-lot-ease-parking-problems

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Final plan for upgrading Baton Rouge Lakes focuses on water quality, habitat creation

 
 
 

The final Baton Rouge lakes master plan being shown to residents tonight skews more to a focus on water quality and habitat creation than a previous draft plan.

 

Out are proposed cafes and in are measures designed to attract more birds, provide better habitat for fish and create filtering wetlands.

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation announced last year it was hiring specialists to come up with a master plan for the future of the six lakes in the Baton Rouge lake system. The health of the lakes has declined over the years due to pollutants and sediment brought in by storm water runoff — both of which made the lakes very shallow in some places.

While the specialists hired by BRAF started off thinking about building places around the lake that could preserve the feeling of south Louisiana, over time it became clear people were concerned about other things.

“People were really wanting to hear about water quality,” said Kinder Baumgardner, landscape architect and president of SWA Group, which is developing the plan.

As such, the plan still includes building wetlands around the lakes, to be constructed with some of the material that will be dredged. The wetlands will aid in keeping pollutants and sediment out of the lakes.

In addition, the design includes a plan to take the first inch of rainwater runoff that falls and drains into the lake system through a created wetland and then piped into Company Canal around the lakes and into Bayou Duplanier. The first flush of rainwater usually carries the highest concentrations of nutrients washed off people’s lawns. By diverting this water into the bayou and wetlands, the plants will help take out nutrients that contribute to poor water quality in the lakes.

Fish and bird habitat improvements will come from providing various depths of water, plant life and even using some of the stumps to be pulled from the bottom of the lakes to give birds and turtles a place to rest, much as they do now in other areas of the lake.

The final plan also includes more emphasis on improving the LSU Bird Sanctuary, which will be paired with a bird viewing area across the lake at LSU.

“It’s those kinds of themes that got more robust,” Baumgardner said of the final plan.

One other item the plan looks at is combing the effort to dampen the sound from the Interstate 10 overpass with designs that could help attract more bats to roost under the highway, something that has become a nightly attraction in Austin, Texas.

While some of the more-commercial ideas are no longer in the plan, a small boat house at the north end of City Park Lake remains.

“If you think about the lakes, there’s nothing for families,” Baumgardner said. “So we’re going to have a little boat house and piers so you can go out with your family and paddle around.”

The planners also felt that food and beverage should still be included in plans for the BREC Milford Wampold Memorial Park, but decided that it would be better handled by food trucks. The expansion could include setting up infrastructure so food trucks could easily set up at the park, and then BREC could decide if and when that happens, Baumgardner said.

The first part of any plan is going to be dredging these lakes, with the dug out dirt to be used in construction of wetlands and dedicated lighted walking, biking and running trails. Currently, pedestrians and vehicles have to share the road in much of the well-used route around the lakes, causing potential conflicts.

What comes next in making the master plan a reality will depend on funding. Not everything in the long-term master plan will be built immediately, but will instead evolve over time, Baumgardner said. For example, over the next five years he would like to see efforts put in place to improve water quality, the addition of more nature around the lakes and reduction in conflicts between pedestrians and cars.

While building everything in the plan could cost between $80 million and $100 million, the lake dredging and trail building will be just a fraction of that to get the ball rolling, he said. Baumgardner said experience in other parts of the country tells him that once people see the added benefits of the first phase, more participation and funding comes along for additional work.    http://theadvocate.com/news/12843489-123/final-plan-for-upgrading-baton

Edited by greg225
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That's a nice plan! I hope they really install all that pretty landscaping. Maybe they could also build a small "museum", like maybe a small labyrinth walls with interactive elements telling the history of the lakes and giving information on the wildlife and filtration technology.

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A bird’s-eye view of the student housing boom on Ben Hur Road         ix years ago, no student housing developments sat on Ben Hur Road between Nicholson and Burbank drives. Three mega-complexes have popped up since then, and more housing is on the way in an area that has proven quite popular with LSU students. Here’s a big-picture look at the student housing frenzy on Ben Hur.

  • The three existing complexes—The Cottages of Baton Rouge, Woodlands of Baton Rouge, and The Exchange of Baton Rouge—have 977 units combined between all of them, with square footage ranging from 570 in a one-bedroom unit to 2,519 in The Exchange’s four-bedroom townhome.
  • Exact price tags were not readily available for all three complexes. But at one point, The Exchange and the Woodlands of carried estimated costs of $36 million and $40.9 million each, respectively.
  • More developments are coming. Capstone Collegiate Companies will develop a 179-unit student housing complex called Arlington Townhomes and Manors near The Cottages, and Dovetail Development, which produced the Woodlands, will build the 204-unit Wildwood of Baton Rouge on Burbank Drive between Ben Hur and West Lee Drive.            https://www.businessreport.com/business/birds-eye-view-student-housing-boom-ben-hur-roadBen-Hurr.Now_-850x500.jpg
Edited by greg225
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Holden to try to keep Albemarle from leaving Baton Rouge            

Mayor Kip Holden hopes to meet with executives from Albemarle in the next couple of weeks to try to dissuade the company from relocating its corporate headquarters from Baton Rouge. Holden says he has not been officially been notified by the chemical company that it is planning to move. However, he has spoken to numerous business leaders about the situation and fears the city’s odds of retaining the corporate headquarters are slim.

“We’re waiting to see what they’re going to do,” Holden says. “When I get through (with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) this week, I want to sit down and talk to them and see what’s what. There is a feeling there may not be anything we can do to change their mind about moving, but I think we owe each other the courtesy of a sit-down meeting, especially since I was involved in helping to bring them here.”

The mayor’s comments confirm what has been one of Baton Rouge’s worst-kept secrets for months. Though the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Louisiana Economic Development decline to discuss Albemarle’s potential move, company spokesperson Ashley Mendoza has previously said the company is looking hard at the local market and is “evaluating the best strategic fit for our businesses and locations, including our corporate headquarters.”

She says that evaluation process began last year, when Albemarle announced it had reached a deal to acquire global lithium producer Rockwood Holdings for $6.2 billion.

“No matter what that decision ultimately is, we will have a presence in Baton Rouge, as our process development center will remain in Baton Rouge,” Mendoza said in May.

Mendoza did not respond to repeated requests for comment in recent days.

Originally founded in Richmond, Virginia, as the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Co. in 1887, the company established a presence in Baton Rouge in 1962, when it acquired the Ethyl Corp., then one of the largest petrochemical companies in the city. Under Albemarle’s ownership, Ethyl diversified into specialty chemicals. In 1994, the company spun off its chemical business to create a new publicly traded entity called Albemarle Corporation, which maintained a large presence here but kept its Virginia headquarters.

LED lured the corporate headquarters here in 2008 with an incentives package that included $4.2 million in relocation expenses. Today, Baton Rouge is home to Albemarle’s shared services center, back-office operations and R&D operations. The company’s engineering group is also located here, as well as limited manufacturing of catalyst and bromate products.

Earlier this summer, Amedisys, another major publicly traded company in Baton Rouge, confirmed it is planning to relocate the majority of its executive team to a new satellite office in Nashville or New Orleans. The company has since confirmed it is moving employees to a new office in Nashville.    https://www.businessreport.com/article/holden-try-keep-albemarle-leaving-baton-rouge

         

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CATS looking for upwards of $11M to fund capital needs outlined in strategic plan                                   

The Capital Area Transit System will need as much as $11 million over the next 18 months to implement the goals contained in a new strategic plan, which include replacing 11 buses, constructing four new transit hubs and building additional bus shelters.

At a board retreat held this past weekend, CATS administrators and board members discussed the strategic plan and heard from a banker and a bond experts about potential funding sources to help achieve the goals. Though voters in 2012 passed a dedicated, 10-year millage to create a long-term funding source for the bus system and address many of its long-term problems, CATS spokesperson Amie McNaylor says the $16 million a year generated by the property tax is not enough to take care of CATS’ current capital needs.

“A big piece of what was campaigned on in 2012 was the system expansion that we delivered in March of 2014—growing the routes from 20 to 30, making changes to existing routes and creating transfer systems around town,” McNaylor says. “With that we increased our service by 40%, so a lot of the additional tax dollars have gone to fund the increased service.”

CATS’ total budget for 2015 is $27 million.  https://www.businessreport.com/business/cats-looking-upwards-11m-fund-capital-needs-outlined-strategic-plan-2

           

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MTV's 'Real World' announces Baton Rouge casting call      

"The Real World" is coming back to Louisiana, but this time it's just for a casting call in Baton Rouge. The long-running MTV reality series, which puts often wild and opinionated twenty-somethings in shared bedrooms, is looking for the next group to call the "Real World" house their home.

While it's not yet clear where that house will be, the Baton Rouge casting call will take place at The Station on Saturday, Aug. 15, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., according to a release. 

"Our ideal candidate has a larger-than-life personality, a unique life story, an adventurous spirit and a personal magnetism that draws attention whenever they walk in the room," the release reads. "We are looking for open-minded and open-hearted people who can make us laugh and cry. We also love people who are at a turning point in their lives and have big decisions to make about their future."

Prospective room mates should be between the ages of 21 and 24, and they should bring a picture ID and a separate, recent photo of themselves to the casting call.

"The Real World" filmed in New Orleans for two season -- in 2000 and 2010 -- and last season, the cast found itself in Chicago. 

Additional details on the casting call are available online through BMP Casting.

According to that website, the Baton Rouge stop is the last in a dozen stops the casting crew is making to find its season 31 room mates.

The last two seasons of "Real World" changed up the show's format for the first time in its history, bringing on extra cast-members comprised of ex-boyfriends and -girlfriends throughout various times to up the drama.        http://www.nola.com/entertainment/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2015/08/real_world_baton_rouge_casting.html

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Could they have just added on to the Cinema? making one Colossal/Mega Entertainment Complex with the bowling & laser tag??  Would have been the perfect blend of stuff! Wonder if this will put Quarters out of business?? (So. Sherwood Forest @ Coursey Blvd)...Of course they have to include alcohol or there would be no "Main Event"! Seems like they could have saved the vintage "Tinseltown Sign"?

Massive family-focused entertainment complex in works for old Tinseltown site

http://theadvocate.com/news/13113108-123/main-event-bowling-laser-tag

 

 

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Demolition of the old Tinseltown theater will make way for a proposed Main Event entertainment complex that will feature bowling and laser tag at the Siegen Lane Marketplace.

Edited by richyb83
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LOL! @ have to include alcohol or there would be no Main Event. It probably won't do too much damage to Quarters, I think it'll serve a different demographic.

It's definitely good to see some different entertainment options other than going to the movies and eating. I went to Area 51 and wore myself all the way out. It was fun though :lol:

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Baton Rouge Metro Airport seeking council approval to update master plan; Marcelle continues fight for police body cameras      

While the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport is working on its first economic impact study since 2007—with a report expected by the end of the year—it is also embarking on an update of its master plan.

On Wednesday, the Metro Council will consider executing a roughly $1 million grant application for the master plan, as well as awarding a $922,171 contract to Mansfield, Texas-based airport consulting firm Kutchins & Groh to conduct the master plan.

“The master plan will assess the current conditions at the airport and lay out a forecast for future growth, plans to achieve our goals and things of that nature,” says Ralph Hennessy, BTR assistant director of aviation. “These are generally done every 10 to 20 years, and the last time we’ve had one done was in 2007. A variety of changes have taken place here since then, and so it’s just time to go back and update the plan.”

Hennessy says funding for the master plan will all come from the Federal Aviation Administration and that no local funding is required. As reported in May, the airport also wants to determine the economic impact of its operations. Baton Rouge-based Emergent Method is currently working on the study—which will also examine ways BTR can attract more business—and expects to complete it by the end of the year.

Also at this week’s meeting, Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle is resuming her fight to see Baton Rouge Police officers outfitted with body cameras. After the council narrowly defeated in June a measure calling for the implementation of the technology by December 2016, Marcelle told Daily Report she would continue fighting to see the cameras implemented.

The resolution up for consideration this week would declare the council’s support for the technology and request the police department conduct a trial and study period on camera usage involving 100 officers, as well as form a study group to track the department’s progress and report back to the council.

Marcelle outlined her idea for such a study group to Daily Report back in June.

Also Wednesday, the council will consider awarding a contract for engineering consulting services on the proposed streetcar line along Nicholson Drive to Nicholson Transit Partners, contingent upon final approval of a $1.8 million grant the city-parish has been awarded for the planning and design of the project. Nicholson Transit Partners is a joint venture comprised of partnership leader HNTB Corp., Stantec, Manning Architects of New Orleans, Fregonese Associates of Portland and Marmillion/Gray Media.

In September 2014, the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program—coincidentally abbreviated as the TIGER program, but with no affiliation to LSU—doled out $600 million in grants nationwide, with $1.8 million going to Baton Rouge for the streetcar project. In April, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Baton Rouge is also among seven U.S. cities that will receive technical assistance via the department’s new LadderSTEP pilot program. The assistance does not come with any funding, but the department will be aiding the city-parish with the streetcar planned between the LSU campus and downtown.

The concept for a streetcar between the LSU campus and downtown Baton Rouge is part of the FuturEBR master plan, and it was initially announced in early 2014. Since then, city-parish officials have been working to identify possible funding sources.

The council convenes at 4 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full meeting agenda.   https://www.businessreport.com/article/baton-rouge-metro-airport-seeking-council-approval-update-master-plan-marcelle-continues-fight-police-body-cameras

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Once a standout of the Florida Boulevard skyline, the Broadmoor Theater Sign was taken down Wednesday morning.

The sign removal started around 8 a.m.

The theater itself has been closed for years, but is now being leveled to make way for a medical complex.

Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider is taking the sign to build his own theater in Livingston Parish.

"Glad John Schneider is going to use and it will still have another life now," Randolph Ogden, whose family built the theatre, said. "Once it gets erected, I'm going to go back out there and visit it and enjoy it again."

Schneider also claimed some of the more recoverable items from inside the theater, including a popcorn machine.      http://www.wafb.com/story/29767362/broadmoor-theatre-sign-comes-down

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Neat, so does that mean there will be a second theater in Livingston?

Good to see that  they are replacing the theather with something that will hopefully last. I think they could use a restaurant in that center too.

 

Yes the guy from Duke of Hazzard been pulling seats and popcorn machine etc out of the old Broadmoore theater to use for his new theater in Livingston. 

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The company is relocating from the tech park on Florida to this new area. I'm sure they considered where their employees live (current and future) prior to making this choice. It sounds like they are going after young professionals. I don't see many young professionals signing up to live in NBR. I'm not saying gentrification can't happen or the area can't one day be desireable but as it stands today it's not IMO.

That and another issue.   Architecturally, they want a higher tech campus-like environment similar to Apple in Cupertino (CA) FedEx Tech in Collierville (TN), and Toyota in Plano (TX).   The Tech center in Baton Rouge or the BREC campus (both on Florida) isn't unlike that setup at all.  Can't really say that Florida near Airline is difficult to get to either.   It's centrally located and can be reached from most of the parish pretty easily, and is only minutes from the airport.   Some companies prefer that, and if they can get it near where their employees live, they will do it.   

The problem with mid-city is that there is very limited space for a big campus like that.....and to be frank, older landowners in nearby downtown haven't died off yet and sold their land to developers.  The obvious place in mid city for something like that would be Florida Blvd, but so much of the larger plots are occupied by retail and (again) isn't available.  Perhaps Cortana Mall could one day be redeveloped into something like that, but until they are willing to sell, not much will happen there. 

Regardless of where they locate, this is a very good thing for Baton Rouge that I think we should all be proud of.

Florida Blvd is unique in that it is sort of a dividing line in the city.  The area north of it is mostly black, uneducated, blue collar workers.  North and east are Central, Denham, and Zachary which are largely blue collar with a recent influx of highly educated white collar suburban people.   South Baton Rouge is more educated, and generally higher earning.  Downtown is the traditional business district that book-ends mid city to the west.  That gives Florida Blvd (which is currently way overbuilt for retail) an opportunity here since it's easily accessed by pretty much everything Baton Rouge has to offer.   A specialized manufacturing facility or distribution center would do just as well there as a tech center or office campus.  To be honest, blue collar jobs are needed just as much (if not more) as white collar jobs.   

IMO, downtown benefited from Mike Foster's effort to consolidate office space to the capital campus...but a lot of those state agencies leased office space on Florida, which now suffers.  We have to focus on redevelopment on the Florida Blvd corridor if we want mid city to live up to its potential.

 

Once a standout of the Florida Boulevard skyline, the Broadmoor Theater Sign was taken down Wednesday morning.

The sign removal started around 8 a.m.

The theater itself has been closed for years, but is now being leveled to make way for a medical complex.

Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider is taking the sign to build his own theater in Livingston Parish.

"Glad John Schneider is going to use and it will still have another life now," Randolph Ogden, whose family built the theatre, said. "Once it gets erected, I'm going to go back out there and visit it and enjoy it again."

Schneider also claimed some of the more recoverable items from inside the theater, including a popcorn machine.      http://www.wafb.com/story/29767362/broadmoor-theatre-sign-comes-down

John Schneider lives in Livingston Parish?   Learn something new every day.   The last movie I saw him in was a made-for-TV film about a tornado outbreak in central Nebraska.    It must have been decades ago.   

I'm glad they are taking down Broadmoor Theater.  It's beyond repair and that plot of land would serve the community much better as something other than an abandoned building.   

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Unfortunately, it's not very difficult to understand why they felt the need to leave.

What are you talking about?   We only have a few problems.....namely a foolish tax structure that the state legislature seems to be emotionally attached to, constant sabotage and undermining of the capital area from New Orleans politicians, terrible public schools, a weak airport with too few flights to hubs in the midwest and western US, terrible highway network, annual threat of hurricanes, and the constant stomping out of grassroots efforts to improve life here.....

Who wouldn't want to stay in Baton Rouge for that?

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