Work starts on third phase of Baton Rouge Junior High overhaul

Work has started on the third phase of a project to turn Baton Rouge Junior High into a “one-stop shop” for most East Baton Rouge Public Works offices. The project involves finishing off a mezzanine area that was added to the school auditorium and preparing the first floor and basement for tenants, says Jim Frey, special projects architect for the city-parish. Frey says the work should be finished around the end of the year, allowing the city-parish Planning Commission and engineering departments to move in by early 2012. Several divisions, including architectural and environmental, as well as the city-parish Service Fee Business Office, moved into the former junior high building over the past year. “These are the last of the tenants, going into the last available spaces,” he says. A variety of federal stimulus funds and grants are helping to cover some of the costs of the $5.4 million project. The city-parish has applied for a FEMA hazard mitigation grant to pay for a fourth phase, which would involve waterproofing the 89-year-old building and improving drainage. “That would complete the building inside and out,” Frey says. For the rest of Real Estate Weekly, click here. —Timothy Boone