The East Baton Rouge Parish Redevelopment Authority this morning began the process of finding and selecting a design and architecture team to lead the planned redevelopment of the former Entergy site on Government Street.
The RDA issued a request for expressions of interest at its meeting this morning, and will hold a pre-submittal meeting and site tour at 1509 Government St. for interested developers on April 7. The deadline for submissions will be April 28. The finalists will be chosen in May and development team will be chosen in June. The plan calls for turning the 6.1-acre site into a mixed-use development.
The selection criteria includes a presentation of a compelling vision for the property, with a strong pedestrian component. The team should be able to show that it can revitalize the neighborhood by rehabilitating buildings on the site and transforming the old Entergy site into a development that can help sustain the RDA financially for the long-term, according to a presentation given by Alex Joyce with Fregonese Associates, a Portland-based firm that is helping the RDA with planning for the redevelopment.
The team will also be asked to submit financial bona fides to show they can handle a project of this size.
“We’re all looking for on-site improvement beyond the buildings,” said Joyce, who gave the presentation via teleconference because John Fregonese, president of Fregonese Associates, was stuck in the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and missed the meeting.
The price tag for the development could be anywhere from $25 million to $35 million. It will include a heavy residential component, Joyce said. The RDA Board and Fregonese Associates at this morning’s meeting placed an emphasis on a plan that will include affordable housing, help the community as a whole, and include and encourage minority contractors and components on the team.
Fregonese Associates has been actively marketing the site and has sent information packets about it to about 12 teams thus far, Joyce said. They are looking mostly at local development teams, but could widen the search to more regional teams in the south.
“These are going to be folks you all are familiar with,” Joyce said.
A selection committee consisting of about five to seven people, preferably people familiar to the RDA and its purpose, will evaluate the proposals. The RDA’s plan call for 120 and 150 housing units and up to 19,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space on the long-vacant property that was donated to the RDA more than two years ago.
The Metro Council finalized the rezoning of the site last week at its March 23 meeting, bringing it from property from light industrial and heavy commercial to a light commercial designation that allows the RDA and developers to be a little flexible in their plans.
“We’re very optimistic, I think we’ll be very pleased with what comes out of this,” said Oregon consultant John Southgate, who is assisting Fregonese Associates.
—Ryan Broussard
