The master developer for LSU’s Nicholson Gateway Project—a mixed-use retail and residential project that will be developed on 28 acres along Nicholson Drive between Skip Bertman Drive and West Chimes Street—could be chosen by late fall, according to a timeline for the project being presented this morning to the LSU Board of Supervisors.
The Austin-based consultants for the project are updating the board on the process and approach they are recommending the LSU Property Foundation undertake to get the development off the ground.
That process will begin next month with the issuance of a Request for Qualifications for a master developer, whose role will be to manage construction of the retail and student housing components the project. Once RFQs have been submitted, the LSU Property Foundation will review them and invite a select list of qualified developers to submit Requests for Proposals, which will be due in September and October. The LSU Property Foundation will then select the developer, with construction beginning about 18 months later.
The LSU Property Foundation, the arm of the LSU Foundation that handles property-related matters, is spearheading the development of the Nicholson Gateway on behalf of the university, according to LSU Foundation spokesperson Sara Crow.
Consultant Peter Isaac, whose firm Brailsford & Dunlavey has been advising the foundation on the project, says no final price tag has been determined, nor has the specific number of apartment units been nailed down.
“The project is still being refined and will be finalized as part of the negotiations with the developer,” Isaac says.
Target completion for the at least the first phase of the project is fall 2018. LSU has more details on the project.
As previously reported by Daily Report, the LSU board will also take up a proposal today to move the city-parish animal shelter to the Baton Rouge campus. Companion Animal Alliance would continue to operate the shelter under contract by the city-parish, and it would build a new shelter on the campus.
—Stephanie Riegel
