Austin’s 18-hour plan

Josh Allen is executive director of 6th Street Austin, a group that manages the public improvement district within the city’s entertainment corridor. Lately Allen’s efforts have been to turn Sixth Street—famous for its nightlife, bars and live music—into a destination for daylife as well.

In Baton Rouge, the Downtown Development District seems to face the same challenge with Third Street.

Allen says attracting different age demographics to the same area at alternate times is the key to growing an entertainment sector. He calls this model his “18-hour urban district.”

For example, he has spoken to one popular Sixth Street bar about operating as a boot bar, selling designer and vintage boots during the day, then turning back into a social hotspot in the evening. In the past two years, the Sixth Street district has attracted upscale restaurants and comedy clubs to help diversify the downtown population.

Here he offers advice to Baton Rouge’s upstart Arts and Entertainment District.

“The most important thing is to gather a critical mass of property owners … Sixth Street has 85 property owners. You have to have one entity in control of writing all of the leases for the area. Baton Rouge may not have that luxury, but this way it is much easier to convince the different owners to fashion, for instance, a true shopping district, to get everyone on the same page. To attract people to an entertainment district or a shopping district, they need more than one reason to be down there.

“Ultimately you have to convince the property owners that it is in their best interest to maximize their investments for diverse use on their street. It’s about transitioning from just a nighttime economy or just a daytime economy into to an 18-hour economy that appeals to multiple generations at different times.”