225BatonRouge.com

An out-of-state company emerging as an important force in Baton Rouge is not living up to its responsibility to become a good corporate citizen.

Columbia Sussex Corp. is now the proud owner of the thriving Belle of Baton Rouge casino, which includes the atrium and other buildings.

The Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based company is America’s largest privately held hotel and casino operator. It recently booted out one of its highest profile tenants, the music club SoGo Live. The new casino owner executed a buyout clause in SoGo’s lease, giving the club 30 days to hit the road. SoGo is disputing the action.

The action stunned the club’s owners. But it probably came as less of a surprise to the former managers at the casino, virtually all of whom were fired and replaced.

The new owners also took the building known as the Old Pilot House, which once was home to Coffee Call in the old Catfish Town days, and turned it into an in-house laundry.

As cold or calculating as those decisions may seem, we can accept them. It’s routine for new owners to clean house and install their own managers to implement corporate culture in takeovers, and no matter how cool Baton Rougeans think the Old Pilot House was, it’s their building now.

But Columbia Sussex is a corporate citizen here, and one who seems to keep getting richer.

It’s sole owner, William J. Yung, plans to squeeze onto the Las Vegas strip with a $2 billion investment. He already owns 83 hotels and nine casinos, according to the company Web site, which boasts “excellence in hospitality.”

Since it bought the Belle, revenue has shot up nearly 50% following Hurricane Katrina, which shut down competitors on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Its other property in Baton Rouge, the Marriott Hotel near Corporate Boulevard and I-10, stayed booked solid for months afterwards with displaced New Orleanians.

Doesn’t a company profiting so handsomely in the Baton Rouge economy have a responsibility to at least acknowledge its citizenship here? SoGo Live is one of those home-run businesses bringing people downtown thanks to an eclectic mix of great music.

So what does Columbia Sussex plan to do with the SoGo Live space?

We have no idea. That’s because the company refuses to answer 225’s questions. In fact, it has refused to engage in any dialogue whatsoever about its plans in Baton Rouge, or how it sees its role, or what are its ideals as a corporate citizen.

We challenge Mr. Yung and Columbia Sussex to recognize the Belle and the Marriott are more than assets on their books and to adopt a spirit that recognizes their decisions affect more than the profit statements they receive back home in Kentucky. They affect the future of downtown and the quality of life in Baton Rouge.