Announcement possible soon about Smiley Heights development

A mixed-use development planned for Mid City’s Smiley Heights area that’s been on hold since 2007 may be back on again. A resolution authorizing Mayor Kip Holden to execute an agreement with the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority for $1.5 million in community development block grant money, for development of affordable rental housing in Smiley Heights, was pulled from the Metro Council agenda in February and deferred to March 23. Authority CEO Walter Monsour says he hopes to have “a pretty significant announcement at that point,” but wouldn’t discuss specifics. “There are a lot of moving parts, and they’re not all in their place yet,” Monsour says. A spokesman for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, whose real estate arm, Commercial Properties Realty Trust, was involved in the original project, did not respond to a call or an e-mail request for comment. Plans for what was intended to be a massive smart-growth neighborhood behind the Bon Carré Business Center came to an indefinite stall in early 2007 after failed talks with government programs and authorities that would have created conditions necessary to facilitate the development. Redevelopment in the Mid City area is a key element of FuturEBR, the proposed and still-evolving master plan for East Baton Rouge Parish.—David Jacobs