One of downtown Baton Rouge’s most high-profile and controversial projects marked its vertical construction kickoff today. Groundwork has already begun on the Hampton Inn & Suites at the corner of Lafayette and Main streets, and officials were on hand at the site to dedicate the $17 million project.
The seven-story, 137-room hotel is expected to open in fall 2012. Hotel construction will employ 110 workers, and the finished hotel is expected to bring about 50 full-time jobs, 10 part-time jobs and 55 service-vendor jobs. Mayor Kip Holden says the project marks a milestone for Baton Rouge.”Three hundred years ago, this land along the Mississippi River was known as Baton Rouge, or Red Stick,” he says. “Today, we see the red stick again, signaling that this is a special place.”
Bo Aughtry of South Carolina-based developer Windsor Aughtry Co. says Baton Rouge was a natural choice for his firm’s first project in Louisiana.”There is a powerful renaissance under way,” he says. “Baton Rouge now has panache.” Holden’s enthusiasm, he says, “affirms that we have made the right decision.”
Davis Rhorer, executive director for the Downtown Development District, says the Hampton Inn will complement the other lodging options downtown. “All the hotels so close to each other bring a great synergy,” he says. “I’m pumped up about it big time.”
Rhorer says he’s also pleased that the site, a former parking lot, will serve a better purpose. “People don’t want to walk past a parking lot,” he says. “This rebuilds the urban fabric.”
Aughtry says the hotel’s TIF structure, though much debated, “was integral to the deal.” The TIF allows the hotel to charge and keep a 2% tax on top of the standard 13% occupancy tax. Of the occupancy tax, the city receives a 2% share for its general fund, while the state gets 4% and the rest is split between the Baton Rouge Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (3%), public schools (2%), retirement of River Center bonds (1%) and road and sewer projects (0.5% each).
Tiffani Delapasse, revenue manager with the city-parish finance department, says the Hampton Inn will also receive the city’s 2% share—for a total benefit of 4% of the occupancy tax. Delapasse says no one else who benefits from the occupancy tax will have to forfeit funds for the hotel TIF.
Aughtry says he is unsure of an exact revenue figure that the TIF will bring. “The safest thing to say is, we won’t know until we open,” he says.
