Something is happening on the south side of campus that’s hard to miss.
Margaret Dillon wakes up to it everyday.
“It’s happening right outside my bedroom window,” she said.
Dillon, a general studies junior, lives in El Cid apartments on Burbank Drive, right next to Southgate Towers, the newly constructed, high end, high rise condominiums on Nicholson Drive.
Next to Dillon’s small parking lot, there once was nothing. Now there is an eight-story parking garage.
And that’s not all.
Just around the corner is a new shopping center. Down the street are new restaurants. Across the highway are newly renovated apartment complexes.
The area south of LSU’s gates has become a hotbed of economic growth in Baton Rouge. New services and structures are being added every day.
Economic growth can offer students more of what they want closer to where they live. It can help create a safer, more attractive living environment. But some students say increased activity is bringing more traffic and a higher cost of living. No matter the outcome, University students are driving economic development and will reap its benefits and share its burdens.
One thing at least is clear: the area south of campus is growing fast, and it’s only just begun.
If you build it,
they will come
Amanda Pendleton, a nutrition freshman, has lived in Baton Rouge all her life. She lives in the Pentagon residence hall, but drives home at least once a week through south campus.
“I remember when there was nothing here,” she said.
For Pendleton and many other students, development in south campus seems almost as if it happened overnight.
In fact, the development has been anything but sudden.
The first stages of development began almost three years ago with Mellow Mushroom and Izzo’s Illegal Burritos.
“This strip was the first new development,” said Ozzie Sernandez, Izzo’s owner. “There wasn’t much else here besides us.”
Much of what has come since Izzo’s — Walk On’s, CC’s Coffee, Hello Sushi and others — is the work of the new Southgate Towers development.
Though Southgate Towers and the retail that came with it seemed to spring up overnight, it is the result of a five-year planning process, said Wesley Moore, who has been involved in marketing research for the company developing Southgate.
“It’s not just that interest suddenly arose,” Moore said. “This is a truly ambitious endeavor and has taken extensive time and planning.”
“Ambitious endeavor” almost is putting it lightly.
The $39 million project promises to be the premiere housing not only around the University but also in Baton Rouge, Moore said.
Condominiums are only part of the living experience. Southgate Towers will have an entire level of retail shops and a health club on its bottom floors. The new retail that surrounds Southgate Towers has a development price tag of another several million, Moore said.
That a development as ambitious as Southgate Towers is happening now is no surprise, Moore said.
Interest rates are at a 40-year-low, which means buying a condominium can look much more attractive to a parent than renting an apartment for their child, Moore said.
“That’s why we’re seeing so many condominiums now,” he said.
Developers are building in the high end. That makes sense too, Moore said, because building in the high end or the extremely low end is where the best return is for developers.
“It’s got to be worth it to build,” he said. And the price of “worth it” is $249,000 for Southgate Towers.
“Worth it” for students will mean granite counters, 10-foot ceilings and high-speed Internet access, to name a few amenities Southgate Towers promises.
“Right now, whoever has the best product sells,” Moore said. “Southgate is going to have something unlike anything this city has.”
Investors see a potential market in University students, whose population has increased by approximately 6,100 since the fall of 1995, Moore said. Over the same time period, housing has increased to accommodate only around 3,100 students.
With 79 percent of students living off-campus, there is a perceived demand for housing. That’s where developments like Southgate Towers come in.
The development also is affecting some old names in south campus, such as Plantation Trace. The apartment has a new name, Highland Plantation, and promises students renovation along with an increased rent.
And owners don’t usually increase rent without signs of increasing demand, Moore said.
A hot spot for
student demand
Local business owners such as Sernandez see the new construction as beneficial for the area.
“The area is booming,” Sernandez said. “It’s good for the community and, I think, for future enrollment in LSU.”
It is understandable that students should want to live in a new, clean, safe environment, he said. And “that’s what south campus offers.”
More students living on the south side of campus means retailers also have a market for their products, Moore said. And so restaurants such as Walk On’s, Wing Zone, Izzo’s and Mellow Mushroom open in the part of campus perceiving a strong student demand.
“They see the area as a hot spot for students, especially students from more affluent households,” he said.
Business owners also see the area as more open to members of the Baton Rouge community at large, said Bob Prescott, Co-op Bookstore owner.
New developments such as Southgate Towers help draw in community members who create a more stable business environment, Prescott said.
When a customer base is composed of more than just students, the environment becomes more stable and more businesses want to move to the area, he said.
“It turns out in the end to be good for students because they have more services offered to them,” he said.
Sernandez has noticed the same trend. Times such as Christmas and summer breaks usually are slow with the concurring decrease in student population. But increased activity and customers from the non-student community help Izzo’s do well even in periods when students are not on campus.
The effect of development is that the south side of campus now appears to many students to be what Moore calls the “nicer, newer” area around campus, one that some students and business owners perceive is safer.
Co-op, for example, used to be a north campus institution, and the move for Prescott has been to the “safer area.”
“There’s not as much crime and that’s a big deal,” he said.
Prescott thinks it is because of the safety that there seem to be so many students around the area all the time, even at night.
“Students just seem very secure here,” he said.
Beyond safety concerns, he said the south part of campus is more accessible and less congested.
Now that they Co-op has moved, Prescott said many students wonder why it hadn’t moved sooner.
“We did a survey two years ago, and it was obvious everyone wanted us to move to this side of campus,” he said. “Once we found the property and were in the right place at the right time, we did it. It’s been a great move for us.”
For business managers who are not as new to the area, such as Mellow Mushroom manager Tricha Bruno, the growth is only for the better.
“South campus is the best place to be because it’s new and exciting,” Bruno said. “It’s been good for us and good for the LSU community.”
And the “new and exciting” shouldn’t stop anytime soon. Students shouldn’t expect anything as ambitious as another Southgate Towers, Moore said. But restaurants and other retail are going to keep coming.
Moving on up
Developers moved to south campus because they anticipated student growth and a demand for services closer to the University. Most students say they were correct.
Stephen Caruso, a Spanish senior, lives in one of the oldest apartment complexes in south campus and he hasn’t been able to miss the development.
“I see a new crane and a new wood structure every day,” he said.
Margaret Dillon eats in south campus restaurants a couple of times a week.
“It’s nice because when there is a lot of traffic, I only have to drive right down the street,” she said.
Dillon calls south campus a “college-y” atmosphere.
One of the biggest benefits for her is the new Co-op. Because all book stores used to be in north campus or on campus, students had to drive to north campus no matter where they lived.
“But now, I can buy my books right next to my house,” she said.
This is exactly what Co-op was hoping for, Prescott said.
Even students who live on the north side of campus are drawn to the area.
Tim Hedrick, an ISDS senior, lives in the neighborhood north of the Chimes.
Hedrick frequents south campus often, mostly to see friends and eat.
“There are a lot of good restaurants,” he said.
Even from the other side of campus, Hedrick sees the benefit in an area such as south campus.
“It’s like a College Dr. but closer, so students don’t have to go through so much traffic,” he said.
The change of scenery is exactly what many students want, said Hunter Yentzen, a kinesiology freshman.
He has noticed new condominiums everywhere.
“I like the variety,” he said. “It’s makes the area exciting.”
For some students, it seems as though the area always has something new to offer.
Linda Giglio, a dietetics junior who lives in the south part of campus, appreciates the development because it’s going to bring one of her favorite foods.
“I can’t wait for the Hello Sushi,” she said.
The high life
One of the attractions of the area for many students is that it offers housing at all price levels. But the demand to live in south campus may change the low rent levels still found in some apartments.
In the past year, the roadsides of south campus have become littered with real estate signs. Tall, half-finished towers beckon students with balloons and banners.
“New management,” the signs say. “Expanded services.”
Then there are the prices.
Parker Place, the under-construction, luxury condominiums directly outside the south gates, start at $169,000.
Burbank Estates, “a quality student housing development,” starts at $135,000.
Southgate Towers, “High Life, High Tech, High Expectations,” bear a price tag of $249,000.
These condominiums are down the street from old brick apartment complexes such as El Cid, Gaslite and Parkland.
And rent in some of these older complexes is on the rise.
Stephen Caruso received a notice from Plantation Trace management less than a month ago, he said.
“They told us the rent is going to go up,” he said.
A rise in rent is supposed to bring along new services and renovated apartment units.
Margaret Dillon’s rent at El Cid also is going up for next year.
“It does seem as though this part of campus is getting more upscale,” she said.
Increased demand makes that possible.
Increased demand also means more traffic.
“Don’t even try to get out of any parking lot onto a street at 5 p.m. It’s not going to happen,” Dillon said. “Everybody knows Baton Rouge already has a huge traffic problem. It’s just getting worse here.”
Sernandez said traffic always will be a problem.
“Obviously, with more people comes more traffic,” he said. “I’m not sure if city planning planned for growth like this.”
One of the major traffic problems is that the major entrance from the south, Highland Road, is a two-way, single-lane road, he said.
The traffic also is a problem for Yentzen.
“You have to be so careful around the construction, and it’s always happening somewhere,” he said.
It does seem to be always happening somewhere.
And though many students see the costs when they try to get across town at 5 p.m. or receive a notice of rising rent, they also seem to be accepting the development and excited about what it will bring.
“There are always going to be problems like traffic and rising costs,” Yentzen said. “But the point, I think, is that this is becoming a better place to live.”