Game on: The owners of the long-vacant site of the Tinseltown movie theater at 10955 North Mall Drive in Siegen Lane Marketplace have filed a rezoning application with the city-parish Planning Commission to allow for alcohol sales on the site, a move that would reportedly clear the way for a new Main Event development. Olshan Properties submitted the application on Thursday and the Planning Commission will take it up at its Sept. 21 meeting. Main Event is a Plano, Texas-based entertainment center chain that has 20 locations throughout Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The centers feature bowling, laser tag, billiards, arcade games, food and a full bar. Further details on the planned Baton Rouge location are not yet available. Tinseltown is currently being demolished.
Road work ahead: Construction is expected to start next summer on the next phase of the elevated Louisiana Highway 1 leading to Port Fourchon. The roughly 3,400-foot stretch of road will connect the four-lane Louisiana Highway 3235 in Golden Meadow and stretch southward over the south Lafourche levees. Louisiana 1 Coalition Director Henri Boulet tells The Courier if everything goes well, the job will go out for bids in February. The section of road will clear the levee system by 22 feet to allow for future levee lifts, and a cement wall built into the levee will help support the road. Construction for the phase is set to cost about $46.6 million. Read the full story.
Hedging their bets: Oil companies are making the largest cost cuts in a generation to reassure investors—and they’re risking their own future growth in doing so, reports FuelFix.com. From Chevron Corp. to Royal Dutch Shell Plc, producers are firing thousands of workers and canceling investments to defend their dividends. Cutbacks across the industry total $180 billion so far this year, the most since the oil crash of 1986, according to Rystad Energy AS, an Oslo-based energy consultant. As prices fall again—Brent crude, the global benchmark, is down 27% since May—executives are trying to achieve what may appear to be contradictory goals: reduce investment and keep growing. Read the full story.
