Expanding the Market

CD-3

Observation

Downtown has significant untapped consumer potential.

Discussion

The Downtown area has a strong potential for re-tail, restaurant, and entertainment uses with the implementation of modern management, leasing, and development practices. The Downtown core of Baton Rouge must accomplish the fol-lowing general goals to succeed as a successful retail, restaurant and entertainment destination:

• Attract a critical mass of supportable retail that includes both national tenants and the individual stores made popular in the Baton Rouge area.

• Appeal to residential consumers in tertiary trade area, particularly south of Baton Rouge, as well as from Port Allen. Identify Baton Rouge as a destination place for these consumers.

• Identify Baton Rouge as a tourist destination and effectively market it to the entire Southern Louisiana region.

• Encourage casino patrons to shop Downtown with a greater frequency.

• Increase the ease to which shopping can be accomplished in Downtown Baton Rouge.

• Encourage Downtown workers to shop at lunch and after work by offering desired merchants. Increasing the govern-mental lunch hour from 30 to 45-60 minutes would allow workers to patronize shops and restaurants during the day with greater ease.

• Raise the quality and service levels of existing tenants.

• Develop a nightlife for Downtown Baton Rouge.

• Develop distinct theme districts (i.e. “retail row”/”restaurant row”) to encourage cross shopping.

The commercial component of the proposed redevelopment of Downtown Baton Rouge should include a combination of community-oriented and neighborhood-oriented retail. The district should be geared not only to residents of Spanish Town and Beauregard Town, but to the more then 100,000 government and office workers coming into the city daily, as well as tourists and residents of the secondary and tertiary trade areas.

Given the retail concentrations to the east and south of Down-town Baton Rouge, the commercial district should compliment, not compete with these areas. Therefore it is essential that the proposed tenant mix, as well as the layout of the district, be strategic in attracting consumers to the area. Once there, the shoppers should be directed through the district in a deliberate pattern.

Recommendation

A retail hub should be situated along Third Street between North Boulevard and Main Street. (See Exhibit B: Proposed Tenant Mix) The proposed commercial plan is based on a series of five-minute walks between destinations. That is to say, major anchors should be located within a five-minute walk, or approximately 1000 feet, from each other along Third Street and Main Street. We anticipate that the average shopper will walk approximately 1000 ft. in the Baton Rouge heat to reach an anchor destination.

The following tenant layout, is recommended to direct con-sumers through the retail district:

• Anchor Tenants: Major anchor tenants should be located at the following intersections; Third and Main, Third and Florida, Third and North Boulevard, and Main and Sixth Street. [The Arts Block will include retail tenants. It is located at Third and North Boulevard.]

• Tenant Types: The major anchors located along Third Street should include such businesses as sit-down restaurants, a multi-screen movie cinema, and a department store.

• Department Store: We strongly recommend that Downtown Baton Rouge attract a major department store to anchor the retail component. Specifically, we recommend relocating the nearby Dillard’s (Florida Boulevard) to Downtown. We believe relocation would benefit both Dillard’s and Downtown Baton Rouge. We recommend a store size of approximately 150,000 square feet. [Dillard’s has closed its Mid City location.]

• Public Market: The major anchor at Main and Sixth Streets should be a public market and parking deck. [The 9,000 sq. ft. Main Street Market will be located inside the Galvez Parking Garage.]

• Core Retail: Existing and infill core retail should be located between anchors on Third Street to benefit from the pedestrian traffic generated along the five-minute walk between anchors.

• Neighborhood Services: Neighborhood services should be located along Main Street between Third and Seventh Streets to capture the traffic generated by the public market. These neighborhood services should include florist, coffee shop and a convenience store. [A coffee shop is planning to locate in on of the Galvez Parking Garage retail pods.]

• Government Street: Neighborhood services should also be located along Government Street to service the residents of Beauregard Town, as well as homeward-bound traffic in the afternoon as office workers leave the CBD.

• Arts and Crafts: Artist studios and arts and crafts stores should be located along Lafayette and Main Street between Third and River Rd.

• Hotels: The two existing hotels on Lafayette should be renovated and a restaurant anchor tenant located between them in the block between Laurel and Florida Streets. [The General Lafayette Inn is slated for demoli-tion and will be replaced with 130 luxury condominiums. The Capitol House is being evaluated to de-termine feasibility of restoration.]

• Tourists: Tourist-oriented retail should be located along River Road connecting Catfish Town, the Centroplex and the proposed planetarium with the city government com-plex and the Third Street shopping district.

• Government Workers: Additionally, service retail should be located along Government Street between St. Ferdinand and St. Charles Streets to accommodate the workers in the city government complex and private office buildings at the base of Beauregard Town.

• Implementation: Implementing the merchandising plan proposed in this Report will require the formation of a merchant’s association that includes both owners and tenants. It may require the contracting of a specialized professional to proactively attract, acquire and close with prospective merchants.

Responsibility

Downtown Development District and Plan Baton Rouge

Project Status

See #18, CBD-1

Implementation

Explanation of Terms

Product

Centralized Retail Management

Responsibility

PBR & DDD

Implementing Agent

DDD

Feasibility Analysis

DDD

Initial Financing

PBR

Project Financing

FF & PI

Timing