With hopes of having a developer for the project selected by March of next year, the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority announced this morning that it has selected Portland, Oregon-based Fregonese Associates to write a request for proposals to transform the former Entergy site on Government Street in Mid City.
Fregonese Associates and its owner, John Fregonese, are no strangers to the Baton Rouge community. The firm handled writing a master plan for land development in the city-parish, FuturEBR, four years ago—which highlighted the former Entergy site as a potential catalyst for redevelopment in the Mid City area. It will start drafting an RFP for the Entergy site in the coming weeks and is to deliver it to the RDA by December.
“Fregonese’s RFP will generate excitement and new life where decay once held sway,” says RDA Chairman John Noland in a prepared statement. “We can’t wait to see what emerges from this RFP.”
Entergy donated the 6.2-acre site in Mid City, which is situated along the railroad tracks between South 14th and South 15th streets, to the redevelopment agency early last year. Aside from two dilapidated red brick buildings, the site is vacant. The RDA’s vision for it includes a mixed-use development with residences, retail, restaurants and possibly even a train station for a commuter line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Once a developer is selected next spring, the RDA says it is expected to begin the project some time later next year.
The RDA received a grant from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to underwrite the consulting work that Fregonese Associates is providing on the Entergy site project.
