Downtown in many cities is a place where people live, work and play. It’s the center of the city’s life.
In Baton Rouge, it’s where people work and state government runs. But community leaders are looking to change that, by making downtown into somewhere everyone – including LSU students – will want to be.
“We’re at a turning point in downtown development history,” said Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Downtown Development District. “We’re changing the dynamics downtown.”
The Downtown Development District is a legislative-designated agency that sets policy for the promotion and enhancement of downtown Baton Rouge. It was one of many agencies that helped negotiate a deal earlier this month to restore The Heidelberg Hotel and Capitol House at Lafayette and Convention Streets.
The Wilbur Martin Foundation, a local economic development foundation, announced it would buy The Heidelberg Hotel and Capitol House, which has been closed since 1985, for more than $8 million. Mayor Bobby Simpson told The Advocate more than $47 million, financed through a public bond sale, will be used for renovations.
Rhorer said the deal is crucial because it will put hotels on both sides of the Centroplex and bring more people to the area, hopefully jump-starting other projects.
The hotel will not open until 2005, Rhorer told The Advocate, but it should speed plans for a nearby condominium tower and possibly a movie theater.
“I’m very excited about the old Capitol House,” said Danielle Savoy, an LSU law student who works at a downtown law firm. “I think it’s a shame it’s just sitting there. It’s in a great location and there is so much history.”
That history includes hosting Huey Long and U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. The original Heidelberg, which dates back to 1927, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will be restored similar to the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, according to a press release.
The old Capitol House was added later and opened in 1957. This part of the hotel will be similar to most convention-oriented hotels. The entire property will offer 315 guest-rooms, 35,000 square feet of meeting space, two full-service restaurants, room service, a bar and lounge,
fitness center, pool and retail space, the press release said.
The week after news of the hotel renovations came out, the Downtown Development Foundation unveiled plans at its monthly meeting to transform the intersection at Third Street and North Boulevard into a town square.
The town square idea will be funded through, $1 million in public money, $500,000 from state government, $250,000 in city-parish funds and the rest through federal grants, according to The Advocate.
Rhorer said the town square will serve as a link between the convention center, business section of downtown and the growing arts area, which includes the Pennington Planetarium on River Road and the Shaw Center for the Arts.
The School of Music will hold classes at the Shaw Center, giving LSU a presence downtown and making students part of bringing downtown back to life, Rhorer said.
Gay Boudreaux, Downtown Merchants Association treasurer, said projects such as a trolley that will run from LSU to downtown also will encourage more students to come to the area.
“It’s quite a scene that they don’t even know about,” Boudreaux said. “It’s still their home even if it’s only for four years.”
As Baton Rouge is the state capital and their home – no matter how temporary – Boudreaux said the downtown developments will affect students because many projects, for example a bike path on the levee, will interest them.
“This is the capital of the state of Louisiana and you have to have a downtown you are proud of,” she said. “If you have guests here from out of town, you’re not going to drive them up and down Sherwood Forest.”
Some students already shop and go out downtown, but not as many as Boudreaux said she would like.
“We would like more, and as the hotel is completed, there will be more nightlife,” Boudreaux said.
Savoy said she thinks downtown needs more bars that create a strip similar to downtown Lafayette, La., where streets are lined with nightclubs, restaurants, museums and theaters. Kathy Hester, a paralegal who works in the building with Savoy, said she would like to see more places where employees can go to have drinks after work.
“I think that if they did that here it would just make the community that much better,” Hester said. “When it shuts down here around 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m., you have to go to the casino and we need more than the casino.”
Boudreaux said the hotel also will help bring in symphonies and theater shows to downtown. Between events, historic sites such as the governor’s mansion and new additions such as the planetarium, she said downtown has potential to be a place for everyone to go even if they are not 21 years old or into the bar scene.
The prospect of new restaurants and housing in the area also excites some downtown workers.
“It’s nice to have additional places to eat for lunch and places to live so you can walk to work,” said Jared Lambert, a computer consultant who works downtown.
But Lambert said in order for downtown to be a viable living place, it needs necessities like a grocery store.
“Right now if you need anything, you have to get in your car and leave downtown,” Lambert said.