Recently-ousted Southern University Vice Chancellor Brandon Dumas is selling the Hotel Lincoln building, a long-vacant and historic property in downtown east that was the marquis hotel for African-American guests to the city during the decades of segregation in the South.
Dumas, who was terminated by the Southern Board of Supervisors earlier this month over allegations concerning a sex tape and was involved earlier this year in controversies regarding the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging, listed the hotel at 400 Eddie Robinson Sr. Dr. for sale in late June.
Asking price for the 12,000 square foot building—which opened in 1950 and hosted such luminaries as Nat King Cole, James Brown and Aretha Franklin in its heyday—is $550,000. It has been vacant since closing in the early 1980s.
Real estate broker Renee Broussard of Vanguard Realty, who is marketing the property for Dumas, says since the listing went up on the Multiple Listing Service June 26 she’s had several calls from interested buyers. Two have floated offers but no deal has yet been reached.
“One guy wants to do condos, another wants to do offices, so there are a lot of potential uses,” she says. “Hopefully we’ll have something soon.”
Dumas has owned the Hotel Lincoln building since it was donated to him by his father, Walter Dumas, in 2011, according to records from the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court. The recorded value of the donation was $55,000.
The elder Dumas had owned the building since the early 2000s, though several times over the years it was seized by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office for failure to pay property taxes, records from EBRSO show. After the 2011 donation, Brandon Dumas redeemed the building by paying the delinquent taxes.
He lost the building in 2013, however, for failing to pay more than $900 in 2012 property taxes. He redeemed the property in June 2016 for $3,869, court records show.
Broussard says Dumas’ decision to sell the building has been months in the making and had nothing to do with past property tax issues or with his recent legal troubles at Southern or the COA. Rather, she says given the building’s proximity to the Electric Depot—the former Entergy building at 1509 Government St. that is being redeveloped into a mixed use space—the time was right to put the property on the market.
“He feels there is a lot of opportunity right now because of the Electric Depot,” she says, adding that while the building needs a lot of work it is structurally sound.
Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer says given the Hotel Lincoln’s legacy and the building’s location in the burgeoning downtown east corridor, it represents an exciting catalyst for further redevelopment in the area.
“That building coming back to life would do a lot of the area,” he says. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for an infusion of economic development east of I-110.”
—Stephanie Riegel
