Editor’s note: This story has been changed since original publication. An earlier version stated the development is at North and America streets. It is at Napoleon and America streets. Daily Report regrets the error.
A new four-story, 25-unit multifamily housing project is set to break ground in Beauregard Town in the next two weeks, Baton Rouge developer Steve Duplechain told those gathered at The Lyceum Ballroom this morning for the Downtown Development District’s monthly commissioners meeting.
Beauregard Quarters initially was announced last August, but Duplechain has since redesigned the exterior to “better complement the aesthetics of the neighborhood” after some area residents expressed concern about the project. He said the building has been redesigned from “the outside in, rather than the inside out” and has been met with approval in the neighborhood.
The development will include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with garage parking on the ground floor. Duplechain said it will also be the only gated apartment complex he’s aware of in the Beauregard neighborhood.
Beauregard Quarters will be located at the corner of Napoleon and America streets, just across from The House on The Hill residential development also underway. That project includes the renovation of five historic structures into seven two- and three-bedroom homes, and five studio residences.
Duplechain said Beauregard Quarters should be complete in about 12 to 14 months. He confirmed the development’s total cost has increased from the $3 million he estimated it at last year, but declined to say by how much.
Also at this morning’s meeting:
- DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer presented the proposed 2016 budget for the agency. At $656,360, the proposed budget is up from this year’s roughly $641,000 spending plan, due to higher tax revenues. The DDD Commission will vote on the budget at its meeting next month.
- A groundbreaking ceremony for the $22 million, 33,000-square-foot building that will serve as the headquarters for The Water Institute of the Gulf will be held at the old city dock at 11 a.m. Friday. The building will be the second to break ground as part of The Water Campus. Stakeholders are touting the project as the next iconic building on Baton Rouge’s riverfront skyline. It is expected to be completed in July 2017. See a rendering.
- James and Lina Jacobs, owners of Magpie Café, said they hope to begin renovations in January on the roughly 3,000-square-foot space they’ve secured in the Commerce Building, with an opening expected sometime next summer. It will be the second location for Magpie Café, which opened in the Perkins Road overpass area about four years ago. Magpie Cafe is the first commercial tenant that has been announced for the Commerce Building, which is being redeveloped for mixed uses.
- Rhorer said he will continue to work with the Capital Area Transit System to help find a new location for a downtown bus hub. CATS was recently sued by Secretary of State Tom Schedler, who is trying to force CATS to move its downtown hub away from outside the Old State Capitol on North Boulevard because of safety concerns and added congestion.
—Steve Sanoski
