Baton Rouge wants more fine dining options downtown

There’s a large demand for more fine dining options in downtown Baton Rouge.

That’s a preliminary finding from the Downtown Development District’s downtown retail survey, which launched last month and is closing next Monday.

DDD Executive Director Whitney Hoffman Sayal says she has received roughly 325 survey responses as of Tuesday morning. She expects to review the full results at next month’s DDD meeting. “We’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the results,” Sayal says.

Also discussed at this morning’s DDD meeting:

•The DDD recently secured a license to Placer.ai, a software that Sayal believes will be helpful in recruiting businesses to locate downtown. The software uses cellphone data to understand pedestrian movement in a geographical location.

•The Somewhere Neighborhood Bar plans a mid-January opening in the former Boudreaux & Thibodeaux space on Third Street, says owner Daniel Unda.

•The International Downtown Association’s Value Report will likely be released early next year. Preliminary findings from the report say that Baton Rouge’s downtown is considered an “emerging” downtown district, Sayal says, and is comparable to Birmingham, El Paso and Tampa’s downtown districts.

This story originally appeared in a Dec. 12 issue of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.