Now that the Bridge Center has selected its first executive director—Charlotte Claiborne, whose appointment was announced earlier today—the next step is to select a location for the behavioral health crisis stabilization center.
Months ago, it appeared Baton Rouge General Hospital’s Mid City campus, with its vacant 25,000-square-foot emergency department, was the favored site for the center. But in early summer, Bridge Center board members decided to hold off on selecting a location until a provider was chosen to run the center.
In August, the board announced Arizona-based RI International had been selected over a local bidder—a partnership of providers from Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and Baton Rouge General Hospital.
Now that Claiborne is on board, she will be working with RI executives to select a location in the coming weeks, if not sooner.
While Baton Rouge General remains in the running, Bridge Center Board Chair Kathy Kliebert says RI executives, in town this week, are touring several facilities, including the former Dollar General location at 3939 Choctaw Drive.
The nearly 12,500-square-foot building is located near the intersection of N. Acadian Thruway and N. 38th St. and has been advertised for lease at a rate of $9.50 per square foot since mid-2018, shortly after the store closed.
“They looked at it this morning and had a lot of questions,” says Stirling Properties broker Dottie Tarleton, who is listing the property. “I think if they chose to come here, it would do a lot for this area.”
Kliebert says she doesn’t know which way the RI team is leaning or what other locations they were touring today, but she continues to consider the BRG campus a strong contender.
“They have the ER and all the ancillary facilities, like its onsite pharmacy and nearby providers,” she says.
BRG CEO Edgardo Tenreiro remains hopeful the Bridge Center will select the Mid City facility, which has been more or less vacant since the hospital closed its ER in early 2015.
“We’re very willing to work with them,” he says. “We’re not begging them to come, but if they want to come we’re happy to have them.”
