It’s not unusual to find the splendidly dressed Richard Preis having lunch at the City Club Grill. Typically, the man who’s one of my favorite people in Baton Rouge can be found at the four-top in the far left corner of the room—just next to the large table that Judge John Parker and friends occupy every single day of the week.
I happened, in early August, to be at another table next to the always colorful Preis (French blue and orange were the colors of that day) and asked him when we might finally see construction begin on RiverPlace, his much-hyped, much-delayed, much-redesigned downtown condominium project. After a recap of the many challenges the development has encountered since it was first unveiled more than a half-decade ago, Preis boldly proclaimed, “You’ll see steel coming out of the ground by November.”
Well, it’s now November and the site between Lafayette Street and River Road looks the same as it always has—a weed-filled concrete lot wrapped by a chain-link fence. Preis now says groundbreaking will be in the spring.
Another deadline, another six-month delay. And so it goes with RiverPlace, the high-rise that was supposed to be downtown’s first new residential construction project in decades.
Now, it seems, One Eleven and The Brownstones, residential projects built by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Commercial Properties, will claim that honor.
It’s guaranteed, someone somewhere today is laughing at Preis, cracking wise at his misfortune, thinking he should just shut up until the damn thing is built.
Why? Because that’s how this status quo town treats risk-takers.
That’s right. Richard Preis is a risk-taker—and rarely does it come easy in this town for those who dare to be first, those who are willing to try what others say is impossible.
So rather than smirk behind his back, we should have his back.
Keep these facts in mind: What Preis is proposing is unprecedented for a downtown still in the infancy of revitalization; soaring material and labor costs following hurricanes Katrina and Rita made pre-storm plans obsolete; financing on condo projects has gotten increasingly tight over the past 18 months; and even the ballyhooed Commercial Properties developments have been forced to change plans, abandoning a condo concept in favor of rental units.
Despite increasingly unfriendly market conditions, Preis remains committed to his vision—even if it takes years longer to realize. That’s why he’s rejected several lucrative offers to sell his prime property over the past 12 months.
RiverPlace is hardly his first eyebrow-raising development. People laughed just as hard when he announced Howell Place, a mixed-use development off Harding Boulevard. “Why build in that part of town?” went the whispers.
Some said he was crazy. Others, after being told they couldn’t have a piece of the deal, worked behind the scenes to derail the project near Metro Airport. And others merely tried to shake him down, looking to profit simply because someone dared to build something bold in their rundown part of town.
And, in true Preis fashion, deals—especially hotels and big box retailers—were announced that never materialized. But guess what? A hotel is now open. A medical plaza is seeing patients. Restaurants are open for customers and numerous other buildings are under construction. It’s taken more than a decade, but Howell Place is coming to life in a part of our city that’s largely dying.
Yet we still love to make fun of the outgoing Preis.
We’re doing the same thing to a risk-taker by the name of Tommy Spinosa. Instead of rallying around the man and his vision for a real lifestyle center (unlike Towne Center), people are taking delight in gossiping about rumors surrounding his Perkins Rowe development.
I don’t doubt he’s got problems, but, my god, have you seen Perkins Rowe? It’s an incredible project, and it’s better than any other retail or mixed-use development this town has ever seen.
So, go ahead, keep whispering about Preis and making fun of the talkative man and his bold vision.
As for me, I say thank you and good luck.
Comments
Posted by por_deni on November 8, 2007 at 1:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
JR, I have seen Perkins Rowe, and the hodgepodge makes me dizzy. I love that it is dense, more commercial and residential square footage per acre than anyplace else in town--that's smart. As in good Smart Growth. But the businesses and homes are very homogeneous--and that ain't so smart. Mixed use needs to be more than just a mix of pricey homes and high-end retail. There is no mixing of incomes in the 24-hour life of Perkins Rowe. The clerks that work at CVS, the cooks at Le Madeline, the attendants at Bally's still have to hop in a car or on the bus and navigate the nightmarish traffic on Bluebonnet or Perkins to get to their (barely) affordable home. That kind of defeats the purpose of a Traditional Neighborhood Development, doesn't it?
I guess if Mr Spinosa had been even more bold and integrated some affordable housing into the plan, there would have been even more behind-his-back snickering to endure.
Posted by harlanpepper on November 9, 2007 at 12:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form."
Albert Einstein, quoted in New York Times, March 19, 1940
Posted by kpmorgan on November 11, 2007 at 7:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Of course Preis' development, when & if it comes to pass, will be a "jewel in the crown", so to speak. Of course, that's been coming for years, and so far, as you point out, it's still an ugly eyesore of a vacant lot. There's no reason Preis couldn't have spent a fraction of the development costs for the building to clean up the block, making it visually attractive, at least temporarily. But in that respect, Prsis is like the old guard you decry, sitting on something waiting and waiting for "the right time," just as he was when he bulldozed the old Ice House buildings on his site, years before their locations were actually needed. In the downtowns that all the "smart" people idolize, there are lots of inexpensive places for trendy, artsy people in or near downtown--upper floors over old storefronts, old warehouses, converted buildings of every type. In Baton Rouge, we applaud when those are snapped up by "professional" offices for renovation as trendy offices, not realizing that we're leaving NOTHING that can be converted for residential.
And as por_deni pointed out for Perkins Rowe, all of the "glamorous" projects on the books in Baton Rouge focus their residential component on high-income people (except old South Baton Rouge, which is focused on the poor. Nobody seems interested in any sort of revitalization that would attract moderate-income, working people to areas near downtown, and they've been priced out of the areas that have already been "fixed up", like the Garden District and University Gardens.
The "jewels" may indeed be jewels, but the crown they're being set in is not gold, not platinum, not even silver or brass or copper, but aluminum foil--the vast swath of crappy construction that characterizes Baton Rouge from the late 50's through the 90's.
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