As it enters its 10th year in operation, the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is undergoing a strategic “visioning” and rebranding process to better reflect who the RDA is and what the agency does.
For the past several months, the RDA has been working with a committee of civic leaders and a local consulting firm to take a hard look at the RDA’s mission and what the agency wants to accomplish in the coming years and how best to get there, RDA President and CEO Chris Tyson says.
Part of the process also involves exploring a name change, something other redevelopment authorities have done in recent years. In 2012, Atlanta’s Development Authority rebranded itself as Invest Atlanta. Portland, Oregon’s became Prosper Portland in 2017.
“It’s an exciting time for RDAs around the country,” says Tyson, who took over at the EBRRDA when Mayor Sharon Weston Broome took office in 2017. “You’ve got this exciting space where people are talking about urban innovation and they’re looking to these agencies to be thought leaders, innovators and to represent their cities in a visionary way.”
RDA board members will get their first look at the consultant’s recommendations and ideas for the rebrand at their May 16 meeting.
In the meantime, the RDA is gearing up to apply for millions of dollars in federal New Markets Tax Credits when the U.S. Department of the Treasury opens the application process, which is expected in June.
It will be the first time the RDA has applied for the incentives since 2013, when its request was turned down for the third time in as many years.
Tyson says it’s important to understand that while the RDA now has a steady funding stream to administer the federal CDBG and HOME programs, which it took over for the city-parish shortly after Broome took office, the funds that come from those programs are restricted.
