On this short holiday week, officials working on the reorganization of the Department of Public Works that East Baton Rouge Parish voters recently approved told Daily Report they expect the transition to take months.
“In the very short run everything will stay the same,” says Christel Slaughter of SSA Consultants, which is working with the city-parish on the reorganization. “But over the next 60 days things are going to have to start changing rather quickly.”
The reorganization plan, which required an amendment to the city-parish Plan of Government, becomes official Jan. 15. At that point, six unclassified department head positions will have to be created, which requires approval from the Metro Council and the Personnel Board. Salaries will have to be set for those positions.
Also this week, Forum 35 discussed its new logo and rebranding effort with Daily Report. It marks the first time since the organization’s inception 21 years ago that the young professionals group has gotten an updated look, and the organization’s leaders says it’s meant to reinvigorate membership as it looks for its next big project.
“Going into the 21st year—into the next 10 to 20 years—we wanted to get something that could give us a spark,” says Forum 35 President Eric Dexter.
Here’s a rundown of some of the other top local stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
— Baton Rouge’s small and boutique businesses are competing—with varying degrees of success—with the deals being offered at big box retailers and the convenience of online shopping this holiday season by trying to make their merchandise and customer service stand apart. Michele Percy with NK Boutique says she’s not worried about her customers going to department stores because NK carries clothing lines they can’t get anywhere else in Baton Rouge. Still, she admits the unlimited online competition is a constant challenge. “People have actually told me they’re shopping online,” Percy says. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m just trying this on.’”
— Highland Coffees owner Clarke Cadzow reflected on what could have been his last day in business. Cadzow announced in late September that his coffee shop, which for 25 years has been located on West Chimes Street just outside LSU’s North Gates, would close on Christmas Eve because he couldn’t come to terms on a new lease agreement with landlord Hank Saurage. But after fans of the beloved coffee shop launched a social media campaign to keep the shop open, Saurage reopened lease talks with Cadzow, and in November the two sides announced they had reached an agreement on a new long-term lease.“It’s a good Christmas compared to what it could have been,” Cadzow says. “The outpouring of support from the community was just amazing and meant so much to me.”
— Local real estate experts say the recent sale of the Acadian Village Shopping Center at Perkins Road and South Acadian Thruway makes a lot of sense from the perspective of both the buyer and the seller. In a deal that closed Friday, Acadian CPDC, a limited liability company established by Commercial Properties Realty Trust, sold the 79,000-square-foot shopping center for $32.1 million to the Dallas-based real estate firm Crow Holdings.
— With their decision to locate the planned $12 million Tiger Athletic Nutrition Center on Nicholson Drive, LSU officials are hoping the project will serve as a centerpiece and catalyst of future developments under the Nicholson Drive Corridor plan. “From a proximity standpoint to our other athletic facilities, this was really one of the best locations we could place it on to have it be in a central point,” explains Eddie Nunez, LSU senior associate athletic director. “Plus, there’s been numerous studies by a number of groups that have looked at this whole Nicholson Drive Corridor plan, which includes everything from mixed-use developments to campus housing and retail, and we’ve always had a desire to have something within this corridor that would really be a landmark within all the development that’s eventually going to come to the area.”
— A southwest Louisiana real estate developer has acquired a 1.1-acre tract at the corner of 38th Street and North Choctaw Drive with plans to develop a Family Dollar on the site, according to real estate broker Harold Williams, who represented the seller in the transaction. In a deal that closed Monday, Mainstream Development, a Sulphur-based firm that has developed several Family Dollar stores around the state, acquired the vacant property for $395,000 from Cap LLC, a local family-owned investor group. Williams sees the purchase as a positive sign for new development in the north Baton Rouge neighborhood.
— Two compressed natural gas fueling stations in Baton Rouge will get facelifts and new equipment under an upgrade plan that an Oklahoma-based company hopes to complete in the coming year. Sparq Natural Gas has filed a plan review application with the Department of Public Works to renovate the fueling station at 8968 South Choctaw Drive. The company is also planning to bring CNG services back to the Texaco station at 8420 Veterans Memorial Blvd., near the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. Another recently submitted plan review application of note comes from Dwayne Sanburn, owner and operator of popular downtown haunted house The 13th Gate. According to the application, Sanburn is undertaking a new project called 13th Gate Escape.
— A pair of developments in Baton Rouge and a third in Geismar have been honored with “Best Project” awards in varying categories from trade journal Engineering News-Record in its 2014 awards for the Louisiana and Texas region. Award winners include Baton Rouge’s new Main Library at Goodwood and The Crest at Galvez Plaza downtown, as well as a project at Rubicon’s plant in Geismar.
— A $33 million modernization project at Honeywell’s chemical and refrigerant gases manufacturing facility in Baton Rouge has been completed, company and state officials announced this week. The plant expansion, which officials say made the Baton Rouge site more competitive, included the construction of a new production line to produce an innovative, environmentally preferable product for use in energy-efficient insulation and in aerosol and refrigerant applications.
