Wampold announces plans for Marriott

Mike Wampold announced Tuesday morning that a Marriott Renaissance hotel, the largest in Baton Rouge, will occupy the site of the unfinished Swaggart Ministry dorms he owns on Bluebonnet. Work will start on the 348-room resort in August-September, and it should be completed in a year. The $64 million hotel will include a restaurant operated by Dickie Brennan, along with a 20,000-square-foot conference center and a state-of-the-art fitness center. GO Zone financing is being used to build the hotel. According to previous filings with the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, the hotel is expected to hire 240 people. Wampold bought the property in late 2004 for $2.1 million. Work had stopped on the dorm in 1989, when allegations of sex scandals caused funding for Swaggart's ministry to dry up. For a rendering of how the hotel will look, click here. (Seth Fox)

DDD wants Pinnacle to consider downtown casino site

The Downtown Development District Commission wants to talk to Pinnacle Entertainment and see if there's a possibility of locating a third riverboat casino downtown. The commission passed a motion this morning in favor of meeting with the casino operators and see if there are any potential development sites downtown. Chairman Derrell Cohoon, who introduced the motion, says he doesn't know if anything will come of the talks, but said he wants to find out if there are opportunities. Commissioner Van Mayhall Jr. voted in favor of the motion but says it doesn't mean the DDD is committed to bringing a third casino downtown. Mayhall says he wants to make sure another riverboat doesn't disrupt ongoing plans for a downtown entertainment district. "I don't know if a third boat will tip the balance," he says. Metro Councilman Pat Culbertson has introduced a motion that will be discussed at Wednesday's Metro Council meeting setting an Oct. 20 local option election date for the Pinnacle Casino, but limiting the casino to an area that roughly matches the borders of downtown. Pinnacle has said it plans to build a massive casino entertainment resort along River Road, centered around the intersection at Gardere Lane. (Timothy Boone)

Updates on Shaw Center, Old State Capitol, TIFs

Downtown Development District Commissioners heard a report about the second phase of construction at the Shaw Center for the Arts. Work will start next month on a liner building between the center and the Roux House. The building will contain 5,000 square feet of office space and 12 apartments. The Stroube's building at the corner of North Boulevard and Third Street is set to reopen in the second quarter of 2008. An agreement for use of the building has been reached between an unnamed restaurant operator and Commercial Properties Development Corp., which is handling the leasing for the center.

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne updated commissioners on the fence restoration of the Old State Capitol. Dardenne says sections of the 150-year-old fence are being shipped off to an Alabama ironworks for restoration. The fence should be back up by May. Plans are in the works to renovate the grounds and the interior of the museum.

Davis Rhorer, DDD director, says tax increment financing plans are in the works for two downtown hotels. Rep. William Daniel, R-Baton Rouge, has introduced a bill to provide a TIF for the Hotel King and the EBRATS building on North Boulevard. The Hotel King is currently being renovated, while downtown developer Bob Dean bought the EBRATS building earlier this year. A TIF was set up to renovate the Hilton Capitol Center. The House easily passed Daniel's bill Monday. (Timothy Boone)

BRAC wins national award for public education research

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber has won national recognition for its five-part research series on public education, "Perception, Reality and Reform: Public Education in the Baton Rouge Area." The Center for Community and Economic Research, the nation's leading economic development research association, gave BRAC its Applied Community & Economic Research Award in the "support for collaborative community/regional initiatives" category.

It's the second year in a row BRAC has received the highest overall rated submission of any organization in the nation. Last year BRAC won for its post-Katrina analysis of the Capital Region's economy, including the impact of the hurricane on jobs and population.

BRAC's public schools research series is the first comprehensive analysis of the 11 public school districts in the Capital Region, included recommendations for reforms to increase student achievement at public schools. The complete series is available on BRAC's Web site, brac.org.

"Nothing is more important to the future of our regional economy than increasing student achievement levels in our public schools," says BRAC President and CEO Stephen Moret. (Steve Clark)

'Business Report' to co-host business plan competition

Baton Rouge Business Report is teaming up with LSU's E.J. Ourso College of Business to host the 2007 New Venture Business Plan competition. The contest is open to Capital Region residents over the age of 18. The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed or start-up stage that will operate in Louisiana. All ventures must be for-profit entities, and any team entry that has already received venture capital funding, angel funding or funding commitments in excess of $50,000 is ineligible for the competition.

To enter the competition, teams must submit their registration online at bus.lsu.edu/businessplan by 3 p.m. June 27. More information, including complete official competition rules and guidelines, can be found at the same Web site. The winners will be announced at the Louisiana Business and Technology Expo's Top 100 luncheon Oct. 17.

Blanco urges balanced approach for state

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has released an editorial, outlining what steps she says the Legislature needs to take to help residents still feeling the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco says she's pushing for a mix of tax cuts and increased spending for schools, economic development and roads. "These investments will allow us to provide even greater tax relief in the future, as we decrease dependency on state programs and increase the quality of life for all of our citizens," Blanco says. Read her column here.

Real Estate Weekly has news on new CVB home, big building projects

Real Estate Weekly is out with news about the Baton Rouge Convention and Visitors Bureau buying a new office, a list of the five biggest construction projects going on in the state, news on how real estate commissions are going up and the latest column by Tom Cook. To read the newsletter, click here.

News roundup: Magazine lists best companies for diversity; IP to keep Pineville mill open; Graduation mapping tool released

Black Enterprise names top businesses: Black Enterprise magazine has released its annual list of the 40 best companies for diversity. The list is based on participation of black people and other minorities in four areas: suppliers, senior management, board involvement and employee base. Companies with local representation that made the list include Coca-Cola, State Farm Insurance and Marriott International. Still in business: International Paper announced today it will keep its Pineville containerboard mill open. The company had spent the past two years looking at alternatives, including shutting down the mill, but decided to keep it open after the plant cut costs and box demand rose. How does your school stack up? The Editorial Projects in Education has released an online mapping tool that allows households to see how high school graduation rates stack up by state and school district. Click here to check it out.