Has the new work-from-home reality hurt downtown restaurants and businesses?

Louisiana government under former Gov. Mike Foster consolidated most state offices downtown, which helped spur the city core’s revitalization.

But now that many state workers are not required to come into the office every day, downtown businesses aren’t getting the same boost.

“Lunchtime for me is not like it used to be,” says Fred Taylor, who owns Poor Boy Lloyd’s restaurant.

He says he often chats with downtown workers who say they come into their office two or three times a week. While he can’t be sure how many of them are state employees, he knows many of them are.

Jacques Berry with the Division of Administration says state government’s work-from-home policies vary by agency and he doesn’t have a government-wide breakdown of how many people work away from the office at least some of the time. He says state transportation officials have asked the division to help reduce traffic while the Interstate 10 widening project is ongoing, which might allow the project to finish sooner.

While working remotely is not possible for every state employee, many can do so effectively, even in certain public-facing roles, he says. It’s hard to fill positions if a hybrid option is not on the table, Berry adds.

Ben Taylor (no relation to Fred), a real estate broker who owns buildings downtown, is calling for a state-level version of the federal SHOW UP Act, a House Republican proposal to reduce telework by federal employees and “avoid the negative impacts of remote work.”

“The taxpayers paid dearly for the building of all of the downtown office buildings,” Taylor says in an email to downtown stakeholders. “It is time to bring the state workers back to their offices.”

As downtown’s residential population grows, downtown businesses are less reliant on workers who commute in, but the latter group remains important, notes Whitney Hoffman Sayal, executive director of the Downtown Development District. She says the DDD is studying how other cities are dealing with the same issue.

“Downtowns around the country are grappling with this change in the workplace environment,” Sayal says.

This story originally appeared in a Feb. 1 issue of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.