BusinessReport.com

Posted on November 11 at 7:28 p.m.

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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