The developers of the River House—the mixed-use development planned for a site at the intersection of Nicholson Drive and Oklahoma Street that once housed the Prince Murat Hotel—have secured financing for their project and applied for construction permits with the city-parish.
Though a ground-breaking date has not been set, developer Marc Blumberg says he hopes to get the long-planned project underway some time in August.
“It’s going to feel great when we finally move dirt,” says Blumberg, who began working on the project in 2008. “But until we have the permit in hand, it’s too soon to celebrate.”
The River House was originally approved by the Planning Commission in 2009 and will include 224 multifamily units, 15,000 square feet of retail space and a 34,000-square-foot office building. Among the reasons for the delay were the recession and, more recently, a change in the financing plan for the project. Federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development dollars were originally going to be used, but last year Blumberg decided to go with conventional bank financing instead.
The River House is not to be confused with the River District, a much larger mixed-use development also planned for Nicholson Drive. The developer of that project, Lafayette businessman Michael Moreno, was dealt a blow earlier this month, when lenders sued him for defaulting on a $58 million loan and filed a motion to seize his River District property.
Blumberg says the fate of the River District and any other projects along the Nicholson Corridor are unrelated to his project, which he believes will benefit from nearby downtown developments and the 36-acre Water Campus, planned for River Road.
“We’ve always wanted to be the first mover, and we will still be first mover,” he says. “We have felt strongly about this area and this location for many, many years, and we’re not at all concerned about being the first mover there.”
—Stephanie Riegel
