Hotel operators against Perkins Rowe hotel TIF

The Baton Rouge Hospitality Management Association, a group of hotel operators, say they are against tax increment financing for a Hilton Garden Inn in the Perkins Rowe development. Scott Michelet, president of the group's board, says the organization opposed the original bill by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, to set up a TIF to turn an old Jimmy Swaggart Ministries dormitory into a hotel. On Wednesday, Rep. Clif Richardson, R-Central, introduced an amendment adding the Perkins Rowe hotel to the original bill. "It's not fair to give one hotel a TIF and not the other hotel," he says. "I don't want one hotel to have an advantage over the other." Richardson says he heard financing for the Perkins Rowe hotel might be lost if the Bluebonnet hotel gets a TIF.

Michelet says his group has opposed a TIF for the Bluebonnet hotel from the beginning, arguing that the projects won't bring new business to Baton Rouge. "You've already got nine hotels in a three-mile radius of both of those places," he says. He notes that the developers of the hotels—Mike Wampold on Bluebonnet and Tommy Spinosa at Perkins Rowe—run strong companies. "It's getting to the point where if you build a hotel, you see if you can get a TIF," Michelet says. Wampold has asked to strip his Bluebonnet hotel out of the House bill, casting his lot with a measure sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge. To read Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball's column about the hotel TIFs, click here.

Raising Cane’s consolidating Baton Rouge office space

Raising Cane’s is consolidating its corporate headquarters to the first floor of the One American Place building after relocating 12 employees to a new office in suburban Dallas earlier this year. The consolidated office space will house 25 employees, including corporate offices for chief executive officer Todd Graves and his staff as well as marketing, design and construction and restaurant support offices for the chain’s Louisiana locations. “We had offices in two suites on the first floor and one on the seventh floor of this building,” spokeswoman Julie Perrault says. “With the move of some of our employees to Texas, consolidating the space we had here made sense.” Raising Cane’s opened a support office in Plano, Texas, in January. That office houses 70 employees who work in restaurant support for the company, career resources and finance. Raising Cane’s has 80 locations, with a little more than half in Louisiana.—Emma James

Entergy units complete three major projects

Two units of power provider Entergy Corp. have completed three major transmission projects to import more potentially cheaper electricity into southeastern Louisiana, while providing lines with more resistance to hurricane winds, company officials say. Two of the lines are in Amite South—New Orleans-based Entergy's service corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that handles both Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana. The third line replaces one destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in Plaquemines Parish and moves it to an easier location for maintenance and, in the case of another storm, quicker restoration. The projects totaled about $100 million.

One Amite South project, costing $44.2 million, includes 18 miles of new line across St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes, along with a rerouting of 4.5 miles of existing line, a new substation in St. James Parish and improvements to three substations in St. John the Baptist Parish. The other Amite South project, costing $18.2 million, involves the upgrade of about 19 miles of line in Livingston, Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes, along with substation improvements in Ascension Parish.

At a news conference, the utilities' CEO Renae Conley says by increasing capacity, the utilities would have additional options to obtain power, especially during periods where imported power can be obtained cheaper than Entergy's own generated power.

Mobile dentists bill heads to Senate

A battle over whether to restrict mobile dental clinics at public schools moves to the state Senate. The Louisiana House today revamped a bill that would have banned the clinics to instead direct the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry to come up with new regulations for them. Even that change didn't win over more than two-dozen lawmakers who argued the instructions for the dentistry board were too strict. The bill heads to the Senate with a 64-30 House vote. Supporters of a ban or limits on the clinics say it is unsanitary and unsafe to drill on children's teeth in school gyms, libraries and cafeterias. Opponents say the mobile clinics bring care to poor children who otherwise would never see a dentist.

Saturday a busy night for art enthusiasts

Back-to-back art shows should keep your Saturday night chockfull of artful hobnobbing. Start out downtown, as the Historical Fonville Winans Studio showcases the masculine works of Aaron P. Hussey, Jonathan Pellitteri, Mark Shumake and Michael Williams. Some of Hussey's sculptures, considered controversial by a few, can be seen in the rooftop sculpture garden at the Shaw Center. Initially the sculptures were on the fourth-floor terrace before the Shaw Center deemed them inappropriate, so the LSU Museum of Art found a home for them in the rooftop garden. And while you're downtown, slip into Red Star to see how photographer Madeline Taylor has captured the city's hipster culture. Taylor won last year's 225 Photo Contest. The same evening, Gallery N hosts an opening for Denise Greenwood, OttO and other artists.

What else is going on this weekend? Louisiana Night Jam, a professional water-ski jump competition and festival, returns Saturday with 30 wild water-ski jumpers from all over the world under a stadium-lit lake in Zachary. A Tour of Ponds throughout Greater Baton Rouge benefits Woman’s Hospital. Dash Rip Rock turns 25, and Land of the Lost tears into theaters. Find out other great entertainment ideas at 225 Select here.

LTC looks to hold virtual job fair

The Louisiana Technology Council is looking at holding a "virtual job fair" the week of June 15. The event will allow businesses to promote their job openings online and to interact with job seekers. "Everybody is going to the Internet anyway to look for jobs," says Michelle Hansen, events and programs director for the LTC. The job fair allows businesses to promote their companies and deal with job applications at their leisure, instead of taking workers out of the office for a day or so for a typical job fair. For job hunters, the advantage is they can look only for businesses or positions they are interested in. "It streamlines the process," says Hansen, who hopes to get about 10 to 15 companies to commit to the fair. For more information, click here.

Sports roundup: Confident Owls flying into Alex Box ... Hornets' Paul profiled by Forbes ... Johnson named as a coach on the rise

Full of Rice: LSU may have knocked Rice out of the College World Series last year, but the Owls are heading into this weekend's Baton Rouge Super Regional with a lot of confidence. “If we go out there focused and ready to play, I don’t think there’s another team out there that’s as talented as us," says Ryan Berry, a right-handed pitcher for the Owls. "And if we put a game together like we have the past three games, I don’t think there’s any team in the country that can stop us, to be honest with you.” This is the fifth consecutive Super Regional Rice has gone to. Rice has a 7-3 all-time record against LSU. The first pitch in the best of three series is at 6 p.m. Friday at Alex Box Stadium, while game two starts at 4 p.m. Saturday. If a third game is needed, it will be at 6 p.m. Sunday.

CP3: Hornets star Chris Paul has been profiled in the new issue of Forbes magazine as the man who "saved basketball in New Orleans." Paul, who just finished his fourth season with the Hornets, has turned the team into a playoff contender and led to a spike in attendance. The magazine says team revenues went up 5% since the 2006-07 season to $97 million, and estimates a similar 5% jump contributed to the value of the franchise, putting it at $285 million. Along with helping the Hornets on the court and in the in the financial ledgers, Paul has worked to help needy New Orleans children. "People ask me if I feel obligated to give back, especially given what New Orleans went through. I tell them you should never feel obligated to do it; you should want to do it," Paul says. Read the profile here.

Tiger turnaround: LSU men's basketball coach Trent Johnson has been named as one of the 12 best up-and-coming coaches by AOL's Fanhouse sports blog. Johnson was singled out for his work in making Nevada a team to contend with, coaching Stanford to a Sweet 16 after four years at the school, then winning the SEC regular season title his first year in Baton Rouge. "If this is his destination job, the Tigers have a program on the rise," Fanhouse says. Other coaches making the list include Alabama's Anthony Grant, Oklahoma State's Travis Ford and Jeff Capel from Oklahoma. Read the full list of coaches here.