Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order in support of controversial religious legislation was not the cause for IBM’s cancellation of its ribbon-cutting ceremony June 22 for its new services center downtown, the head of Baton Rouge’s Downtown Development District said today.
DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer said during a Press Club of Baton Rouge speech that IBM officials told him via email they were canceling the festivities because they wanted to wait for both buildings in the project—an eight-story office tower and an 11-story residential complex—to be completed. The office tower has opened for business, but the residential portion won’t be done until October.
“I had gotten an email saying that they were canceling the ribbon cutting, but it wasn’t due to the nature that was presented,” Rhorer said when asked about the reported IBM brouhaha. “They’re waiting until the fall to have it.”
Rhorer’s comments contradict a report earlier this month from WAFB, which claims the technology giant quietly took the ceremony off its schedule because of Jindal’s order, which effectively upheld the provisions of the failed “Marriage and Conscience Act.”
The bill proposed this past legislative session was aimed at providing more protections for local businesses that oppose same-sex marriage. Critics of the bill said it could have opened up a legal foundation for discrimination. The bill quickly died in committee, but Jindal issued the order hours later.
IBM officials had publicly denounced the bill. Company vice president James Driesse wrote a letter to Jindal in April saying a pending religious freedom bill could create a hostile environment for the tech company’s employees.
IBM officials could not be reached for comment today.
Though large in scale because of its possible political ramifications, the IBM fiasco was only a blip in Rhorer’s Press Club speech, which also covered the numerous projects slated to update greening, roadways, walkways, and residential and office space in the area.
Rhorer said eight new merchants are set to be announced for the booming Third Street corridor in the coming months, and DDD is set to unveil a downtown parking study to its board of directors in July. In addition, a search committee has narrowed its list of potential artists to design a downtown piece of art at the riverfront at Florida Street to seven. Officials will conduct Skype interviews with the seven before narrowing the list to three, and those finalists will travel to Baton Rouge for final interviews.
—Robert Stewart
