Downtown Grocery is the newest business to call the downtown area home and will hold a grand opening Monday, joining the ranks of other new businesses in a thriving and growing section of Baton Rouge.

The grocery store on the corner of Third Street and Florida Boulevard is the first of its kind for downtown Baton Rouge and will offer customers items like milk, bread, beer, hygiene products and lunch options. 

Throughout the semester, downtown Baton Rouge has welcomed many new businesses, such as Red Six Media, which moved downtown in March.

The company is run by three University alumni — Matt Dardenne, Kristen Morrison and Joe Martin – who spent three-and-a-half years at the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at the University.

The company specializes in “video production, graphic design [and] all the traditional and non-traditional media production,” Dardenne said.

“It’s exciting; we love this new office space,” he said in March. “It’s in the middle of downtown, we love being here. Our clients have enjoyed visiting the new space. We’re hoping that is going to give our company more visibility, which will in turn help us get new business in the future.”

The Blues Room also opened downtown this semester, offering patrons live and authentic blues music since early February. The venue is located directly across the street from the downtown Hilton on Lafayette Street.

The Blues Room’s owner, Billy Stevens, said he was looking for a niche in Baton Rouge that would fit the downtown area.

“Baton Rouge has a great culture of blues [and] people in south Louisiana have a great culture of having fun,” Stevens told The Daily Reveille in February. “That’s what we’re trying to do, give [people] a place to have fun and enjoy the culture of south Louisiana.”

While downtown Baton Rouge has seen its fair share of new businesses, numerous festivals and events have also been held in the area on virtually every weekend of the semester.

The Blues Festival was held downtown April 13 and featured many renowned blues musicians playing for a crowd of more than 10,000 people.

The festival served to reconnect Baton Rouge with its rich swamp blues history, said emeritus member of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation Maxine Crump.

The festival acts as an outlet for people to connect and now preserve the history of swamp blues in Baton Rouge, and it’s something the city should be proud of, said Festival Chair Chris Brooks.

The Downtown Development District has also worked this semester on several projects that will improve the quality of life for people who wish to move to the area.

The DDD held public agenda meetings at the beginning of March to gain public input for the Downtown Greenway that is currently in the design phase.

“[The Greenway] is an opportunity to pull all different segments and facets of the community together because a lot of different types of people [will] like to use it,” said DDD executive director Davis Rhorer in March.

The greenway will also connect with a levee bike path that is part of the Riverfront master plan. The master plan also involves increased access to the levee from Florida Boulevard and external changes to the outside of the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, he said.

Rhorer said he wants the new revitalization projects to enliven the downtown area and attract new people to the area.

“We want a lot more to happen down here,” he said in January.