The East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is launching a national search for a team to create a master plan for the 100 acres surrounding the former Entergy site on Government Street, which the RDA acquired late last year. As first reported by Daily Report, the RDA wants to turn the 6.2-acre Entergy property into a mixed-use development with, possibly, a railway station that would service a passenger train line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
At its meeting today, the RDA announced it will issue the request for proposals on Friday for the project, which it’s calling the Mid City Predevelopment Planning Project. Whomever is selected for the master plan will conduct in-depth market, housing and engineering analysis to determine the highest and best use for the area for future developers.
“We’re taking the idea of a master plan but putting some teeth behind it,” says Susannah Bing, RDA director of finance and economic development.
The 100-acre area stretches from Interstate 110 to South 19th Street and from North Boulevard to Government Street, but the planning project will home in on a 30-acre area designated as a “core site for redevelopment,” Bing says. The 30-acre area, bordered by North Boulevard, South 17th, Government and South 14th streets, encompasses the 6.2-acre former Entergy site, the aboveground remediation for which is expected to begin in August.
Proposals for the approximately seven-month project are due July 18, and the RDA is aiming to select and approve the team at the board’s August meeting. Under that timeline, the project could begin Sept. 1 and wrap up in March 2015. Bing says the project—estimated to cost $190,000—will be funded by a $284,000 grant from the Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit. Following the project’s completion, the RDA will begin to solicit developers, she says.
Meanwhile, plans are also moving forward for Ardendale, as the RDA prepares to issue the RFP for the first phase of the 200-acre Mid City urban village development, formerly known as Smiley Heights. Clearing and drainage for the 30-acre first phase of the redevelopment is expected to begin in October, with construction on Baton Rouge Community College’s automotive training center starting in January. The center’s projected completion date is August 2016, in time for the 2016 fall semester.
