Movin’ on up

For several years Baton Rouge went without a modern hotel downtown, but that has changed now that the area’s revival is in full swing.

The Sheraton and the Hilton Capitol Center offer plenty of lodging for downtown visitors. Now it’s apartment and condo space playing catch up with the popularity and goodwill heaped on the area. The slow curve of residential development creates a disconnect between where many people want the Arts and Entertainment District to be right now and where it actually stands, a condition best described as growing pains.

Roughly 2,200 residents hang their hat in the greater downtown area that includes Spanish Town and Beauregard Town. Six new and under construction developments could increase that number by 400 or more by the end of next year (see chart at right). Planners estimate downtowns need 5,000 permanent residents to begin attracting significant retail development. In other words, in 2009, Baton Rouge will be a little more than halfway there. It will get even closer if Richard Preis’ long-planned, often-altered hotel-condominium project ever gets off the ground.

But one local developer disagrees and insists the figure is a legitimate goal for what is currently considered downtown, or the new Arts and Entertainment District.

“We need to envision a downtown circa 2012 or 2015 that encompasses the current area, Spanish Town, Beauregard Town, the Old South area around the I-10 and the area from east of the I-110 to 22nd Street,” says Cyntreniks co-owner John Schneider. “Within these boundaries, you can envision 5,000 residents in apartments, townhouses, condos and single-family residences with sustainable retail stores and public trolleys or some form of transportation system.”

This wider concept of downtown is the only way to get the kind of retail people want in the Arts and Entertainment District, Schneider says, because packing 5,000 people into and immediately surrounding the district’s 15 blocks is not feasible.

In October Schneider and business partner Brace Godfrey will debut the new Kress at Third & Main and its 22 residential units. Schneider has lived above the Wine Loft at Third and Laurel for three years. As part of the area’s growth, and to aid current residents, he wants to see an urgent care center and a pharmacy as the next project for downtown. Through Cyntreniks, he and Godfrey are trying to make it happen.

“This would be an ideal combination,” Schneider says. “It is possible.”

Interior designer Bruce Foreman lives on Main Street and agrees with the need for a drug store. A full-scale grocery and a gas station would also make his list, along with more condominium space. “We have enough restaurants,” Foreman says. “It would be wonderful to have a movie theater to complete the neighborhood.”