Groundbreaking is set for Wednesday, March 18, for Baton Rouge Community College’s Automotive Training Center at Ardendale, the urban village the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is helping develop in the former Smiley Heights neighborhood north of Florida Boulevard.
Gwen Hamilton, RDA’s interim president and CEO, updated the agency’s board of commissioners this morning on status of the 200-acre development, one of RDA’s signature projects.
She also reported on the agency’s other major project: 1509 Government—the six-acre, former Entergy site now projected for mixed-use development. Hamilton says urban planner Andres Duany, who has been working on proposals for the site and surrounding neighborhood, will present his design and development strategy at a community meeting on Monday, March 2.
Hamilton took over at RDA on Dec. 1, after former CEO Walter Monsour resigned amid controversy over the agency’s financial problems. In her nearly three months at the helm, Hamilton says she has met with numerous community groups to try to create alliances and pursue potential partnerships. She is also working with the firm SSA Consultants, retained to develop a long-term business plan for RDA.
Still, the agency is a long way from finding a permanent funding source. Board Chairman John Noland says though RDA initially said it would run out of money by early 2016, he now believes it could hang on until early 2017 — when the city gets a new mayor. Noland says he has given up on obtaining permanent funding from Mayor Kip Holden’s administration, and is turning his attention to potential candidates to succeed Holden in the 2016 mayor’s race.
“For now, we have a small staff and it’s a caretaker staff,” Noland says. “They’re going to support the projects we have in house and we will continue to apply for grants … while we work on a longterm strategy.”
—Stephanie Riegel
