Construction fencing has gone up around the old Louisiana National Bank Building at 150 N. Third St. downtown, and demolition work on the interior of the historic building is underway to make way for a new hotel.
Developer Mike Wampold, who bought the 88-year-old building in late 2013 for $10.2 million, isn’t yet ready to announce what flag will fly at the hotel. But he says he hopes to have an announcement on a franchise agreement with a national chain in the next couple of weeks.
Wampold bought the building from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation—which had acquired it just weeks earlier from the state—and announced plans to redevelop the property into a 146-room hotel. Last year, the Legislature approved the creation of a Tax Increment Financing district to help finance the project, and earlier this year, the Metro Council signed off on the TIF.
Wampold was negotiating with Marriott for a franchise agreement, but while his TIF bill was making its way through the Legislature, an out-of-state developer, Windsor Aughtry of South Carolina, acquired a surface parking lot on North Third and Florida streets—a block from Wampold’s building—and inked a deal to build a 147-room Courtyard Marriott on the site.
Wampold declines to say what chain he is currently negotiating with. But he is confident enough in the future of the project to begin gutting the interior, which will cost an estimated $350,000 and take about 60 days. Because of the historic nature of the building, certain architectural elements will be preserved, but most of the walls will be torn out.
“Coming back in it will be like a brand new building,” he says.
—Stephanie Riegel
