Cameron Jackson says he’s confident he can make a shipping container park filled with food, drink and retail thrive along Baton Rouge’s Florida Boulevard.
The 24-year old Baton Rouge native, Houston transplant and former Coastal Carolina University football player is hoping to open his first restaurant at Millennial Park by early April.
“I feel great,” Jackson says, standing at the construction site last week. “I feel like it can’t flop.”
|
|
|
The first container will house a Carribean-style restaurant, Jive Turkey, managed by GMG Management. A second container currently on the site will provide restroom space. The popular Big Cheezy food truck has also signed on to open a permanent location in the next phase, followed by The Private Shop, a vintage store.
Jackson has plans to tear down the black-painted brick building on the corner of the lot that formerly housed his grandfather’s barbershop.
Eventually, the building will be replaced with a three-story arrangement of the steel containers, filled with a mix of restaurants, retail and a rooftop bar.
Florida Street is poised to see an influx of traffic upon completion of the Government Street road diet, which is expected to divert some vehicles traveling between Mid City and downtown onto North Street and Florida Boulevard. As it stands now, about 20,000 cars pass the park every day, Jackson says.
That’s a number he expects only to grow.
|
|
|
The project fits in with other Florida Boulevard and north Baton Rouge redevelopment initiatives, including the recently announced plans to renovate and house the Bridge Center in a building just down the street.
Shipping containers have been utilized for restaurants and retail in cities from Miami to Sacramento, California. Jackson says he chose the containers after seeing them in Austin, Texas, and Jamaica recently, thinking they’d be a cost-effective way to launch a new business.
Read on for the full story, which originally appeared in the Feb. 26 edition of Daily Report.