Downtown Courtyard Marriott slated for September opening

If all goes according to plan, the Downtown Courtyard by Marriott, at the corner of Florida and Third streets, will open in mid-September, sometime between Sept. 18 and 20.
The opening is just in in time for LSU’s football game against Louisiana Tech, says Ben Blackwell, area manager of operations for Hospitality America, which operates the Courtyard.
The $23 million project is wrapping up five years after planning for the eight-story building began. The hotel was supposed to open in late 2017, but the 2016 flood and more weather delays pushed the timeline back to May 2018. Additional weather issues and limited physical space around the construction site, says Blackwell, further delayed the scheduled opening.
The hotel will operate a Starbucks, the first for the downtown area, that will open the same day as the hotel.
Blackwell estimates 65 people will be employed at the Courtyard and another 20 at the Starbucks. A job fair will be held next Thursday at the Hampton Inn & Suites to fill the positions.
As the seventh hotel in downtown Baton Rouge, it will add 132 rooms to the four-parish market area that includes East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes. Downtown Baton Rouge currently has 47 projects that are planned or under construction, says Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer.
“We continue to grow and we’ll continue to keep working at it,” Rhorer says.