While local officials have mostly been mum following the Metro Council’s decision Wednesday evening to deny the creation of a special taxing district to help finance a new Courtyard Marriott planned for downtown, the developers of the project tell Daily Report the council’s action throws the future of the hotel into serious doubt.
“Windsor Aughtry Hotel Group and local partner/investor Gordon LeBlanc are extremely disappointed in the outcome of last night’s Metropolitan Council meeting,” said Bill Fayssoux, the local project manager with Windsor Aughtry Hotel Group. “We need to evaluate all our options, if any, and respond at the appropriate time. However, without the council’s support, the likelihood of the project remains in doubt.”
The council voted 5-4 to deny the creation of a special tax increment financing district for the hotel, which was planned for a vacant parking lot owned by LeBlanc at Third and Florida streets. Windsor Aughtry has previously said it needed a TIF to help make the project economically viable, but council members questioned the need to use public funds to finance a private project in what some consider to be a nearly saturated hotel market.
While Visit Baton Rouge President and CEO Paul Arrigo told Daily Report the tourism promotion board had no opinion on the council’s vote, Mayor Kip Holden said he hadn’t yet had time to analyze the situation. Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer, meanwhile, said he is doing whatever he can to try to salvage the project and keep the South Carolina-based developer—which also developed the Hampton Inn & Suites downtown—from walking away from the deal.
“I’ve been talking with them and talking about various scenarios,” Rhorer said. “I’m going to do everything from my end. We’ll keep talking and see.”
Also this week, Holden told Daily Report he hopes to meet with executives from Albemarle in the next couple of weeks to try to dissuade the company from relocating its corporate headquarters from Baton Rouge. Holden said he has not been officially been notified by the chemical company that it is planning to move. However, he has spoken to numerous business leaders about the situation and fears the city’s odds of retaining the corporate headquarters are slim.
Here’s a rundown of other top local stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
- After two months of declines, total home sales across the eight-parish Capital Region rebounded in June, jumping up 10.6% compared to the same month last year.
- About one month after buying Paula Pennington de la Bretonne’s estate at 11001 Highland Road for $6 million—the highest-priced residential sale in Baton Rouge’s history—Dr. Andre Bruni and his wife, Dr. Jessica Bruni, have purchased the Park Forest Shopping Center for nearly $2.43 million.
- Catholic High School is preparing to move forward with plans to redevelop the former Westmoreland Village Shopping Center on Government Street, which the school acquired in late 2010.
- Settlement money from the BP oil spill is one potential source of funding for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s ambitious project to restore and improve the LSU lakes, according to BRAF Executive Vice President John Spain.
- It has been about two decades since Checkers, which also operates the Rally’s chain, has had a presence in Baton Rouge. It previously operated here under the Rally’s flag. Now it’s looking to bring the brand back, this time as Checkers, and it has a pretty ambitious growth plan.
- What started out as a homemade pickle recipe made a few years ago has blossomed into a flourishing business for Alvin Ray. The 52-year-old Ray, a former plumbing and electric maintenance worker, says he had to quit his day job because of the more than 6,000-jar-a-month demand for his Alvin Ray’s Bayou Best Pickles.
- With 65% of Baton Rouge metro area roadways in either “poor” or “mediocre” condition, motorists here are paying a hefty price to travel over them—$705 more per year in additional vehicle operation costs—according to a new national report from TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group. The report ranks Baton Rouge as having the nation’s 11th-highest share of roadways in poor condition—38% of all roads here are deemed as such—among mid-sized U.S. metro areas with populations between 250,000 and 500,000.
- Though there were no changes in the Capital Region’s six largest privately held companies in this year’s Top 100 list by Business Report, measured by fiscal year 2014 revenues, there were some shakeups in the No. 7 through 10 spots. Check out the full list, which is a part of the new Business Report cover package released this week.
—Steve Sanoski
