The East Baton Rouge Parish Redevelopment Authority is set to vote later this month on allocating $30 million in federal New Market Tax Credits for three local projects. If the allocations pass, the projects will include $17 million for the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel that would be built at the corner of Lafayette and Main streets; $8 million for the River House mixed-use project that would be built on Nicholson Drive at the site of the old Prince Murat Inn; and about $5 million for the Landry-Landry Law Office on Lafayette Street, which is being redeveloped into an office/residential project. Walter Monsour, CEO and president of the redevelopment authority, says all of these projects are located in low-income census tracts. “These are project- and developer-driven,” he says.
Last week Monsour told The International Council of Shopping Centers’ Baton Rouge Next Generation Program that the redevelopment authority wants to work on projects in which it can have the most impact. The RDA turned down a request for new market tax credits for another hotel project because it didn’t fit in with the authority’s mission. The RDA is considering the allocation tax credits for other projects, including the Smiley Heights development behind the Bon Carré Business Center and an undeveloped tract of land near Southern University. — Timothy Boone
