Editor’s Note: This story has since been updated to correct dollar amount in headline.
Roughly $122.8 million worth of investment has been pumped into downtown residential projects in Baton Rouge since 2010, according to the Downtown Development District.
The figure is included in the DDD’s 2016 toolkit, a report that examines how the area has grown and changed throughout the years. The report was presented Thursday at the Downtown Development District Commission meeting and is now available online.
Downtown Baton Rouge has 3,938 occupied housing units, 65% of which are used by renters. Another 454 units are planned or under construction, according to the DDD.
“This increase in demand is attributed to an energetic and convenient urban lifestyle desired by young professionals and retirees,” the report says.
Private dollars have financed much of the downtown investment, the report says.
“Although many people see Downtown Baton Rouge as one unit, the city is really a series of separate neighborhoods that have grown together over time,” the report says.
Five neighborhoods make up the Downtown Development District—Downtown East, Capitol View North, the Central Business District, Beauregard Town and Spanish Town.
The Central Business District, it notes, continues to grow as developers respond to a “significant desire for an urban lifestyle in downtown Baton Rouge.”
“Due to the increasing demand to live in the Central Business District, over 317 additional residential units are currently underway,” the report says.
According to the report, 3,687 people live within the area. The average household size is 3.01 people.
Singles account for 81% of the downtown population, and about half, or 52%, of them are male. Nearly half of the people living there are 29 years and under, and people 19 and younger account for 26% of the population.
—Alexandria Burris
