The Metro Council reversed course this week on a special tax incentive for a new downtown hotel, voting 10-1 at its meeting Wednesday to approve a tax increment financing district to help fund the construction of a Courtyard Marriott at the corners of Florida and Third streets. The council had previously rejected a TIF for the hotel in July.
With the TIF approval, the hotel developers, South Carolina-based Windsor Aughtry Company, told Daily Report they anticipate breaking ground on the 135-room hotel within the next four months and have it completed in time to open for the 2017 football season. The hotel is expected to cost around $20 million to build, and the developers have long maintained it would not be feasible without the TIF assistance.
The council also approved raising monthly solid waste and recycling fees by $1 to $20 after Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel announced recycling in the city-parish would cease after Nov. 1 without the increase. The fee is paid parishwide, except by residents of Baker and Zachary, who pay for their own solid waste and recycling services.
The council also approved a $95,000 contract with Michigan-based Health Management Associates to begin a comprehensive study of the medical practices in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, as well as a $94,327 contract with Pictometry International Corp. to provide aerial photography of the city-parish to update and improve the Geographic Information System mapping data used by city-parish agencies.
Baton Rouge General Medical Center filed preliminary paperwork with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals this week to relocate its renowned burn center from the Florida Boulevard facility to its Bluebonnet Boulevard campus. The announcement came less than a year after the hospital shuttered its Mid City emergency room, and hospital officials say it is still too preliminary to discuss a timeline for the move.
Also this week, an audit of BREC expenses for 2014 was released showing the parks and recreation department’s expenses increased by 7% to $54 million, up from $50.5 million in 2013, while revenues increased just 5% to $68.4 million, up from $64.9 million.
Here’s a rundown of some of the top stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
- With about 120 days on the job under his belt as president of the Southern University System and chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus, Ray Belton has started working on a strategic plan that could result in the elimination of certain academic programs or departments within the historically black college system, he said as guest speaker of this week’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge.
- When it comes to jump-starting a business with a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter, it takes more to be successful than just creating the page and praying for generous donors to hand over money. Putting yourself out there with videos, presentations and personalized notes thanking people for their generosity are just the start, a panel of local entrepreneurs told those who gathered at the Louisiana Technology Park this week for a forum on crowdfunding.
- The oil and gas industry is facing one of its most challenging times in recent history, but Gary Luquette, president and CEO of Houston-based oil and gas service firm Frank’s International, told those at the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition in Lafayette that he’s confident in the long-term health of the industry.
- For months, the expected ending to the first half of this year’s gubernatorial race had been scripted as David Vitter versus John Bel Edwards. But how the race will play out in its second act is anybody’s guess at this point, LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab Research Director Michael Henderson told the Press Club of Baton Rouge this week.
- Two weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency released a study on the feasibility of establishing a bikeshare program in Baton Rouge, officials with various local agencies met this week to begin mapping out their next steps to establish a program to Baton Rouge.
—Steve Sanoski
