After requesting for the Taylor Clark Gallery on Government Street to be rezoned for restaurant and bar use, a regional restaurateur has pulled plans to enter the Baton Rouge market.
Jessie Babcock, of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, was representing the prospective tenant—a regional restaurant and bar concept—and filed the application for the former art gallery to be rezoned earlier this spring. The Planning Commission unanimously approved the rezoning at its April meeting. The decision to terminate the deal was a business decision, Babcock says.
“Baton Rouge lost out to other projects in another market,” Babcock says, adding she thinks the company may reconsider the city in the future.
The 6,000-square-foot building across the street from The Pink Elephant Antiques was designed in the 1960s by renowned Baton Rouge architect A. Hays Town and has housed the art gallery for over 55 years. Commercial agent Matthew Laborde of Elifin Realty, who’s representing the property, told Daily Report last year that the gallery was downsizing and shifting more of its business online.
