A federal judge has cleared the way for Goldman Sachs Bank to take title to the 42-acre property along Nicholson Drive that Lafayette oilman Michael Moreno amassed in the mid-2000s with dreams of developing it into a mixed-use project called The River District.
The order, signed Sept. 28 by U.S. Magistrate Mark Hornsby, is the final procedural step in a 15-month foreclosure battle that began in July 2015, when the bank sued Moreno for defaulting on a $52.4 million loan. Moreno opposed the suit and the case was stalled in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana until late May, when a federal judge rejected Moreno’s attempt to bring the case to arbitration.
Once Goldman Sachs takes title to the property, the bank will sell it, which local real estate agents and developers have said could be a good thing that helps get the long-stalled project finally moving. Both local and out-of-state investors are interested in some or all of the property, according to various sources, who have been watching the saga of the River District unfold over the years.
Since Moreno began buying up property along Nicholson Drive near Magnolia Mound Plantation in the mid-2000s, a lot has changed along the corridor. Construction began in 2015 on the Water Campus, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s water-focused research park located between Nicholson Drive and the River Road just south of the Mississippi River Bridge.
Construction also got under way earlier this year on The River House, a mixed-use development at 1480 Nicholson Dr. on the site of the old Prince Murat Hotel.
Further south on Nicholson Drive, LSU is moving forward with its Gateway Development, a planned mixed-use project of student housing and retail, and Baton Rouge is in line to receive federal funding for the development of a modern streetcar line along 3.4 miles of the Nicholson Drive corridor. Â Â
—Stephanie Riegel
