River Park

[Nick83]

Yeah, its a pretty sweet development; very big for downtown. The article said that it is a 10-15 year project, but construction should start sometime this year on the entrance (railroad underpass). I'm willing to wait if they are serious about it, it seems like a pretty ambiguous project.

I wonder how this effects River Place; if its even still in the works.

[richyb83]

WOW!!!! This exceeded my expectations for sure!!! Super looking development! Hope this gets done! 10 to 15 years?? The people from Hollywood Casino has gotta love this! I guess it depends on what you call "high-rise"? Some of those buildings are no taller than the new state bldgs. This would definetly put BR on the map!!! Those two towers in the back look at least 20-stories.

The underpass will be great; a necessity. Looks like a sleek 12-story office building next to the underpass??

I'm with you on that Bryde; this rendering gives it a Florida look I like they drew the State Capitol in the background! I could see these 16-story buildings be built first??

Clements said the $600 million River Park, first discussed about a year ago, is a 10- to 15-year project that will ultimately include a 280-room, major flag hotel, an extended-stay hotel, 800 to 1,200 residential units, 250,000 square feet of retail space, 650,000 square feet of office space, 6,000 parking spaces and a 600-seat amphitheater along the riverfront.

Mayor Kip Holden, who introduced the project at the Downtown Development District meeting this morning, said the project will add the equivalent of 10-12 new city blocks to downtown and is a “new vision for the northern Mississippi riverfront.”

Access to River Park would be provided by a four-lane underpass under the railroad tracks that parallel the Mississippi River, the first part of the development to begin. Clements said work on the underpass should begin in the third quarter of this year and be completed by the end of 2009.

Clements said that, when he started talking to people more than two years ago, it was difficult to get anyone interested in retail and residential development downtown. Now, however, the development is attracting enough interest from retailers that he had to change the plans to accommodate them. No tenants have been signed yet, he said.

“We’ve had a lot of interest,” he said. The main attraction, he said, has been the uniqueness of the development and the 1,500 feet of riverfront.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/18891904.html

Edited May 13, 2008 by richyb83

[cajun]

Damn....that's three or four mid rises and one 20ish story high rise.

Let's hope it doesn't get scaled down or that the developer's past legal problems don't hurt the chances.

This might be the biggest thing in Baton Rouge since Exxon.

River Park reminds me of "Glory Park" in Dallas (right down the street from where I live in Arlington), except that this might be larger. Maybe they can incorporate a mall in the plans.

Message to Riverplace developer: If you don't build it, someone else will! It sure looks like more than $600 million worth of work.

All I can say is that the new Casino better step up to the plate, because if this gets built then they are screwed. Imagine now if that batture on the other side of Casino Rouge was turned into a massive sports complex, golf course, or some kind of attraction. Casino Rouge would put the others out of business! It looks to me like that dinky little Shereton that Paragon built may have to be expanded.

Edited May 13, 2008 by cajun

[dan326]

WOW!!! :w00t: :eyes blow out of eye sockets: That is incredible! I had to take several looks to make sure I hadn\'t stumble onto the wrong article. Like Cajun said this is huge, I wish Baton Rouge was a person so I could hug them, I\'m so proud. If we get this, it\'s NOLA\'s shadow no more.

This reminds me of City Center in Las Vegas, which is funny because when this project was first announced I had hoped it would.

Edited May 13, 2008 by dan326

[twstdndmntd]

Like many of you I am totally blown away with this. This is way more than what I EVER imagined for that area. Preis needs to get his ball rolling or he can stick a fork in it. I think the first thing that will be built, besides the railroad underpass, will be the hotel. I think Hollywood is going to push hard for that aspect. I'm pumped about this, I just wish it wouldn't take 10-15yrs to do. I'd love to see it all go up at the same time, kind of how Perkins Rowe did.

[BRPJ]

O.M.G.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R U SERIOUS!? I had no idea they were cooking that up! WOW This will totally transform downtown, i mean it will TRULY extend its perimeter northward for sure. It be one thing if it was one high rise, but thats a whole new downtown in itself. If we really build that, we are becoming MAJOR. the only thing that has me like yea right, is the time frame. But they say they are starting this fall, so thats promising.

Edited May 15, 2008 by BRPJ

[richyb83]

Still looks like a year 1/2 away before any real construction of the buildings itself. The article says R.R. underpass access road would start by this Fall and be complete by the end of 09'. Isn't that a long time for a R.R. underpass??

Great looking design on some of those buildings. The circular building looks really cool; might that be the hotel?? Wonder which major flagship hotel?? 280-rooms +the extended stay should fill most of the void of hotel rooms left for downtown??

650,000 sq.ft of office space is impressive.

[twstdndmntd]

Still looks like a year 1/2 away before any real construction of the buildings itself. The article says R.R. underpass access road would start by this Fall and be complete by the end of 09'. Isn't that a long time for a R.R. underpass??

Great looking design on some of those buildings. The circular building looks really cool; might that be the hotel?? Wonder which major flagship hotel?? 280-rooms +the extended stay should fill most of the void of hotel rooms left for downtown??

650,000 sq.ft of office space is impressive.

Yeah I thought that was kinda long for an underpass too...... Course I'm not engineer or anything. LOL... I really hope that they would start building while doing the underpass. I think for me to get on board with it is if I see construction on buildings my mid 09.

[cajun]

Yeah I thought that was kinda long for an underpass too...... Course I'm not engineer or anything. LOL... I really hope that they would start building while doing the underpass. I think for me to get on board with it is if I see construction on buildings my mid 09.

As a structral engineer, I can tell you the factors of having rail lines there (I think there are two) combined with the highly plastic soil in the area and the need to keep the rail lines open....that's going to raise some major engineering and constructability issue.

Building on that site will not be cheap. Judging from the square footage they mentioned and the general size of the buildings, I think they under-estimated cost....it's going to be more than $600 million for that. That's close to a billion dollars worth of work there, especially considering the necessary soil stabalization, etc. That's why I think this is one of the largest projects in the city's history which is why I think they will start with the hotel and "maybe" build the condos and office buildings later....but you can bet with the underpass that that area will be open for something big.

Edited May 16, 2008 by cajun

[BRPJ]

I thought about this when the riverpark renditions were first posted, but this project is quite similar to victory park in Dallas. Of course the project in Dallas is bigger. But its been amazing to see them throw the project up pretty quick when you consider its size. My hope is that BR will get started and that we will continually see buildings going up. victory park is nearly complete in Dallas, and its has drastically changed the skyline..... check here for reference. http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/Dallas-T...own-t11313.html

I think its very comparable to the BR project

And as you can see the american airlines center is in the middle of it. I think BR should build an arena that can sit 20,000 people iin river park, that would make it so official. Eventually we should get our own basketball team anyway.

Edited June 2, 2008 by BRPJ

[richyb83]

Nice comparison BRJP; like you said not in magnitude. How is Victory Park going?? Has everything still gone as originally planned??? I love the digital panels they have along the entrance to the America Airlines Arena. Mixed -use Live Work & Play is where it's at!

I can just envision all of the new development along the riverfront??!!! Imagining myself driving north-bound on River Road passing the River Center/Old State Capitol/LASM and around the corner of the Hilton Capitol Center seeing "BAM"!!!! a new gleaming-sleek 30-story RiverPlace tower and the new mid-rise bulging toward the river at the Old Advocate site....and then all the new towers going up in the farground at River Park!!!!!

Talk about transforming the Skyline!!!!!

I like your postive thinking and share your enthusiasm; but I have a hard time seeing Louisiana with 2 NBA Teams; esp with the Hornets just 80 miles away. Maybe BR could be a candidate for a NBADL Team?? Probably at the RiverCenter.

Edited June 2, 2008 by richyb83

[BRPJ]

Nice comparison BRJP; like you said not in magnitude. How is Victory Park going?? Has everything still gone as originally planned??? I love the digital panels they have along the entrance to the America Airlines Arena. Mixed -use Live Work & Play is where it's at!

I can just envision all of the new development along the riverfront??!!! Imagining myself driving north-bound on River Road passing the River Center/Old State Capitol/LASM and around the corner of the Hilton Capitol Center seeing "BAM"!!!! a new gleaming-sleek 30-story RiverPlace tower and the new mid-rise bulging toward the river at the Old Advocate site....and then all the new towers going up in the farground at River Park!!!!!

Talk about transforming the Skyline!!!!!

I like your postive thinking and share your enthusiasm; but I have a hard time seeing Louisiana with 2 NBA Teams; esp with the Hornets just 80 miles away. Maybe BR could be a candidate for a NBADL Team?? Probably at the RiverCenter.

Victory park seems to be going as planned. They've built at least six high rises in the "uptown" area virtually adjacent to downtown. I really hope riverpark is built with the same speed. Its seems like yesterday when they first broke ground on victory park and they're almost done.

True, new orleans and the hornets are close, but i think there is still room for another basket ball team. I think if Baton Rouge's populations continues to grow we could have the market for it in a few years.

Edited June 6, 2008 by BRPJ

[richyb83]

A Public Hearing will be held by the Planning Commision on June 23rd and Metro Council July 16th.

They will change (re-zone) the Horizon Plan "2010 Land Use Plan" from Industrial to Planned Unit Development (PUD).

[buckett5425]

I am really surprised no one has mentioned this before, I stumbled across it today, but if you go to the DDD home page, they have a Power Point for River Park. Below are renderings that we havnt seen posted before.

[richyb83]

Thanks for posting this Buckett I like the site plan lay-out where the hotel, residential, office and retail is located. Love the rendering with the Claiborne Bldg & Hollywood Casino; definetly a city within a city!

[buckett5425]

If River Park gets built, and is successful, the Hollywood Casino Parking lot, i doubt, will remain a parking lot for long. I'm sure Hollywood at that time, would begin to develop the land some how, or just sell the land to River Park(I see this being likely, because we now know they will work together on projects, such as the RR under pass.) That land is simply to valuable to be a huge parking lot for long. So if the parking lot gets developed, River Park wouldn't seem so distant from downtown, and would be more integrated, and only separated from downtown by the Capitol Grounds, and Desoto park, which i believe, would then become the "central" location for downtown, holding more events and such, as a connection and middle ground between the CBD and River Park.

I also believe, that River Park will be a catalyst for developing Desoto Park sooner, and finshing the levee walk all the way to the Hollywood.

[dan326]

Wow! Those are great. This is so exciting! If it gets done we will definitely be on the next level.

[dan326]

I figure the reason it is going to take so long is because there probably is not enough demand for it. Dallas can afford to build Victory Park in a short time as they have gained 1 million people to their metro since 2000. River Park also has to compete with projects like La Vie, The Grove, Juban Crossing, and Arlington Creek. So it may take awhile but I think we can do it. The way I figure it, there wouldn't be so many projects if B.R. couldn't handle it.

[dan326]

"Planning Commission to get first look at River Park

The Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on rezoning for River Park, the 36.3-acre, mixed-use development next to Hollywood Casino, at its meeting Monday. The details of the Planned Unit Development are fairly similar to when they were first announced last month at a Downtown Development District meeting. Developer Pete Clements is calling for a project with 1,202 condominium units, 650,000 square feet of office space, 274,000 square feet of restaurants and stores, 500,000 square feet of commercial space, 504 hotel rooms and 170,000 square feet of public/semi-public space. The development of River Park is set to take place over the next 10 to 15 years. The plan is to start work on the first phase this fall, a four-lane railroad underpass that will provide access to the property. The underpass is scheduled to open in early 2010. Planning commission members have recommended approving the rezoning for River Park."

[BRPJ]

It just kills me that it takes 2 years just to get the road done...

So it will be ages b4 we see anything substantial go up

[twstdndmntd]

I actually think once they get the underpass done, this project could actually move at a good pace. I think the first "big" portion to get done will be the hotel. I think Hollywood is really going to want that as quickly as possible, seeing they will soon have to compete with Pennacle. I honestly think that could start on that while the underpass is being done.

[twstdndmntd]

Was glad to see that the Planning Commission approved this plan "as is". It's a big step forward, now work can begin, I assume.

[buckett5425]

Ive got an update for yall....

Tonight LSU had another firm crawl, we went to all of the downtown firms. We visited Holden and Associates and I got some info on River Park. Despite the economy, the project is still going to continue, and they have a lot of national interest in it. Holden did tell me though, that he had signed a confidentiality agreement, but that the development was going to have a lot of surprises that haven't been released, the casino is playing a bigger part in the development then any of us know, and that construction on the underpass is about to begin. I just found this news exciting, because i really thought this project was just going to be lost.

On another note, the interior of Grace and Hebert was amazing and the reason the outside remained the same was for a tax credit, but in five years it expires, and they plan to dress up the out side then.

[BRPJ]

Ive got an update for yall....

Tonight LSU had another firm crawl, we went to all of the downtown firms. We visited Holden and Associates and I got some info on River Park. Despite the economy, the project is still going to continue, and they have a lot of national interest in it. Holden did tell me though, that he had signed a confidentiality agreement, but that the development was going to have a lot of surprises that haven't been released, the casino is playing a bigger part in the development then any of us know, and that construction on the underpass is about to begin. I just found this news exciting, because i really thought this project was just going to be lost.

On another note, the interior of Grace and Hebert was amazing and the reason the outside remained the same was for a tax credit, but in five years it expires, and they plan to dress up the out side then.

Great news. Like you, i figured this project was just too massive and with the economy it would get hacked.

[dimebag1980]

That is a bad-ass project! The renderings are amazing. This will undoubtedly transform the riverfront and the skyline.