re: When did they remove the stars and Bars from the 7 flags over BR

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CATFISH TOWN, a failed festival marketplace downtown, has been converted to an office complex with the Resolution Trust Corporation as its major tenant. The complex of renovated 19th-century brick warehouses on the banks of the Mississippi opened as a $28 million retail center on July 4, 1984, with great fanfare, drawing 250,000 people. But within 18 months it was virtually empty. In June, Resolution Trust -- the Federal agency that disposes of properties held by failed thrift institutions -- rescued the 160,000-square-foot complex, now owned by National Asset Bank of Houston. It signed a five-year lease for up to 100,000 square feet for its consolidated Louisiana-Mississippi office. It occupies 71,000 square feet and will soon exercise part of its option for 15,000 more, said Larry Lalumandier, the office's assistant director of administration. Catfish Town is now 79 percent leased with rents of $9 to $11 a square foot, said Rodolfo Aguilar, who was hired in 1989 by the Houston bank to resuscitate the complex. A survey of 550 business, community and government leaders on what should become of Catfish Town persuaded Mr. Aguilar to convert it to an office complex with an entertainment component. He said he hopes to close a deal soon with a restaurant for 10,000 square feet and is working to attract other food and entertainment tenants to make Catfish Town a "festival workplace." The complex was planned by a local lawyer, Richard J. Dodson, and a group of investors who became interested in redeveloping the city's dilapidated riverfront warehouse district. The group first renovated two warehouse structures into office buildings. The two- and three-story buildings, called Maritime I and Maritime II, have a total of 82,000 square feet -- not part of Catfish Town -- and are 90 percent leased. Next the group decided to develop 13 buildings into a festival marketplace with a food court and small shops. The name was chosen because the property was on the former site of Catfish Pond. Mr. Aguilar attributes its failure to two factors: It opened just as the decline in the oil and gas industry battered Louisiana's economy, and Baton Rouge, with its population of 400,000, is not large enough and does not have enough tourism to support a festival marketplace. In 1987, Allied Bank of Texas foreclosed on the property. Allied Bank was bought out in 1988 by First Interstate of California, which then became First Interstate of Texas. National Asset Bank was set up by First Interstate of Texas to liquidate more than $100 million of Allied's bad assets, among them Catfish Town.

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