After several years of unsuccessfully searching for a site on which to build a new branch site in south Baton Rouge, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System has hired Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre to identify viable sites.
The library board signed off on a contract with the broker at its meeting Thursday night at the recommendation of Library Director Spencer Watts.
“We need specialized assistance in locating a site for this branch that satisfies all of our environmental, engineering, location and other needs, and hiring a real estate broker who knows the area and its developments will help sift out more potential sites for sale or lease that are not actively being listed,” Watts says in a prepared statement, adding the library system will not pay any fee to the broker and any commission earned will be paid by the seller.
The south branch was initially planned for the Rouzan development on Perkins Road. The library system inked a cooperative agreement with Rouzan developer Tommy Spinosa in 2010, but after years of negotiations the deal ultimately fell apart and the plan was axed in late 2013. That sent the library system back to the drawing board, and in 2014 it hired consultants to come up with a list of potential sites. None of the sites identified—all of which were either on or very near Ben Hur Road and West Lee, Nicholson and Burbank drives—proved viable.
Watts says preliminary reports from Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre could become available as early as January. He is optimistic the latest effort to find a site will finally be successful.
“As we pursue a site, Sperry Van Ness has the type of knowledge that is helpful—of traffic patterns and how patrons travel in the area, specific market listings and people’s routines. If a library is in a route where people run errands, this is a good location for us,” he says in the statement. “But we also have to be aware whether there is a convergence of interest among nearby neighbors and businesses and the potential site.”
Kathryn “KJ” Juneau of Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre will act as the lead consultant to the library board in the search.
