Southdowns

http://theadvocate.com/home/5551260-125/ibm-selects-br

Can anyone give an update on the progress of the new shopping area at Burbank/Lee? I think Target is the anchor. They've been moving dirt but I haven't seen any signs of when they're planning on opening. Thanks in advance.

Riverfront railroad track underpass work set</SPAN> Developer Pete Clements said work will begin soon on the $10 million to $12 million project to put an underpass below the railroad tracks that will separate his planned mixed-use development on the riverfront near Hollywood Casino from downtown. Clements said he is almost done hammering out the necessary details with the railroad and moving utilities and hopes to begin later this year and finish the 1.5-acre road portion of the project by the first quarter of next year. He said the contract for the part of the first phase that deals directly with the tracks has been awarded and he's narrowed down to two contractors for the remainder of the road project. Clements unveiled his plans for the 36-acre, $600 million River Park development just under a year ago and said he will have his first announcements about the rest of the development later this year. He said plans approved by the city-parish call for 1,200 residential units. -Thanks to 2theadvocate.com This is good news. I hope this means River Park is still a "go." Even if its modified, it's still a huge project for downtown.

Acadian Village redevelopment Commercial Properties Realty Trust has filed plans for a redeveloped Acadian Village shopping center, which will include retailers, restaurants and 53 rental units. The shopping center at Perkins Road and South Acadian Thruway will include more than 100,000 feet of retail space spread out over five buildings. Apartments will be built above two of the buildings; rents have not been set but they will be priced at market rates. While no construction timeline was announced, there had been earlier talk that work would start in the first half of 2009.

The proposed master plan for River Park, a potentially $600 million multi-use development on 36.3 acres next to Hollywood Casino, was unveiled at this morning

I would love to see Albermale put their name on the outside of one of the towers downtown. I know Chase has their's on the south tower, but the north tower has nothing. I am hoping Regions will put their name outside of City Plaza II. It makes the downtown look more professional, more "big time" if the large companies who occupy those buildings downtown add some signage and light to their buildings. Does anyone know if a large company occupies the black tower (sorry I forget the name) downtown? It would have been very cool if Shaw had built downtown, since they are the only Fortune 500 company in BR. I had hoped Amedysis would've built downtown or occupied one of the buildings so that they couldve lent their signage to a downtown tower. Shreveport businesses have done a really good job of adding signage to their downtown buildings, as well as lighting them up (Dallas does an awesome job of adding light to their nighttime skyline- BR needs to incorporate something like that).

With the addition of the new building on Summa, and if the new EKL will be built there as well, the city had better get started on widening Summa. It is already a main artery from Essen to Bluebonnet, and those new entities (especially a fully-functional hospital with trauma center) and the traffic they would create would make Summa a parking lot (especially around shift-changing time @ 3:00). I do not see anything about widening Summa in the Green Light Plan. I hope someone is looking at this.

From the BR Business Report: Fortune 1000 firm Albemarle moves HQ to BR Baton Rouge has snagged the headquarters of another Fortune 1000 firm. By year's end, specialty chemical giant Albemarle will move its executive offices from Richmond, Va., bringing with it 30 professionals and a $7 million annual payroll. Already based in Baton Rouge are the company's administrative offices, which employ 300 workers in sales, marketing, engineering, finance, customer service and other areas and a research and development office on Gulf States Road, which also has 300 employees. But Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret says bringing the executive headquarters to the Capital City is a serious coup. "In the world of economic development, nothing is more exciting than landing a major corporate headquarters-especially a Fortune 1000 company," he says. "This is definitely a home run." This is a huge coup for Baton Rouge!

"Hammond Aire is a giant cluster f-ck. It's busy as hell most of the time, the traffic is heavy, and if you are talking about the same Shoe Station, then it's always filled with people. I'm sure the store managers don't intend for it to be all messy, but they are crazy busy." I don't see why the BR area doesn't have multiple Marshall's or Stein Mart stores, like the greater Jackson, MS area which is smaller in population than GBR. I am hopeful that when the Target Supercenter is built at Lee/Burbank (anyone have any updates on that development?) it will include some of those stores (Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Stein Mart). I try to aviod Hammond Aire as much as possible because of the terrible traffic and parking.

Anyone else hearing of problems Spinosa is having at Perkins Rowe? Its a beautiful development for sure but I spoke with someone who insures contractors that are working on the project and several of them have leins on Spinosa right now because they aren't being paid. I hear Tommy owes hundreds of thousands (millions total) to various people. This cannot bode well for Rouzan's future. I would think that Tommy would have to take care of Perkins Rowe business first before starting Rouzan. I live in close proximity to Rouzan and was looking forward to seeing this project develop, now I have my concerns that Rouzan development may not begin for several years.

Small River Place update from Julio Melara of 225 Magazine: "Now, the final piece of the downtown puzzle-places to live-is beginning to blossom with construction of One Eleven and The Brownstones, plus Richard Preis

Anyone know the status of RiverPlace? I emailed the salesperson but have not recieved a response yet. I have a bad feeling that this project is dead.