With efforts by state Rep. Regina Barrow and Metro Council members John Delgado and Chauna Banks-Daniel, there is a lot of interest these days in redeveloping north Baton Rouge, writes Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel in her latest column.
“For an area that for so long attracted so little attention, it’s refreshing to see such an interest in bringing economic development and prosperity to the blighted neighborhoods and abandoned storefronts,” Riegel writes.
Barrow convinced the Legislature to create the Baton Rouge North Economic Development District with the idea that it will be similar to the Downtown Development District in advocating for the area and fostering growth. Delgado and Banks-Daniel are also working together on creating a special taxing district for the area that would offer property tax abatements for business owners who develop in the area.
Those ideas are great, Riegel says, but will they work? Developer Richard Preis, who oversaw the construction of Howell Place, a mixed-use development on a 205-acre tract at Harding Boulevard and Interstate 110 in the early 2000s, says he thinks it can.
“He has already brought economic development to north Baton Rouge, and he has a unique perspective on the pitfalls, the problems and the potential,” Riegel writes.
Preis turned a 205-acre tract on Harding Boulevard and Interstate 110 into three hotels, a medical center, a YMCA, apartments and several fast food restaurants. And there is more in the works.
Preis tells Riegel he faced pushback from what he calls the Baton Rouge establishments—business owners he believes feared the competition from Howell Place who fought zoning changes and made it difficult to complete the project.
“They did everything they could to stop these three hotels,” he says, which he says made him realize he was “onto something big.”
Preis says incentives are important for businesses that want to risk developing in the area, adding he had three national food chains who showed great interest in developing in Howell Place, but “the economics just didn’t work. If they had had some incentives it would have made a difference.”
Read the full column. Send your thoughts to editors@businessreport.com
