Eight design teams submitted proposals Thursday to the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority outlining their plans to turn the former Entergy site at 1509 Government St. into a mixed-use development that would help bring the blighted neighborhood between downtown and Mid City back to life.
The proposals, technically called Expressions of Interest, were due into the RDA offices at 5 p.m., and the agency’s executive director, Gwenn Hamilton, says she is thrilled with the level of interest.
“I am very tickled,” Hamilton says. “I am beside myself that so many people and interested in working on this project.”
The teams that submitted Expressions of Interest comprise partnerships of local and regional design firms and developers. They include: CLB Porter with Manning Architects; Columbia Residential with Block Companies; Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp. with Chenevert Architects; Fitch Development with Coleman Partners Architects; Alembic Community Development; Onsite Design with Charles Landry, Carbo Landscape Architecture and Ritter Maher Architects; Vision City Development Group and Cyntreniks; and Weinstein Nelson Development Team/Electric Depot.
Design teams toured the six-acre site earlier this month, many getting their first look at the long vacant building. In 2013, Entergy donated the property to the RDA, which sees it not only as potential catalyst for redevelopment in the area but also as a potential revenue generator for the cash-strapped agency.
Portland, Oregon-based planning firm Fregonese and Associates will review and evaluate the Expressions of Interest and make a recommendation to the RDA board and staff on how next to proceed.
Hamilton says it is likely the firm will select a short list of design teams and request more information from them, though it is possible it could recommend awarding the job to a single design team based on their initial Expression of Interest.
It is not clear how the redevelopment of the property will be financed. In its Request for Expression of Interest, the RDA asked for ideas on how any potential deals might be financed.
