Developers in 'tug-of-war' over Baton Rouge's River Park

The debate is if this should be an outdoor music venue with some residential buildings.....or if it should be a warehousing/industrial use given the direct rail and river access.

Unlike the batture directly across from the capital building, this site is on a bluff and isn't prone to flooding. There is an underpass beneath the rail road tracks that gives this site direct access to River Road.

quote:

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Amphitheater or industrial development? Developers in 'tug-of-war' over Baton Rouge's River Park

LINK

An agent who has the listing for the River Park property near Hollywood Casino said there’s a “tug-of-war” over the highest and best use for the 23.5-acre site on the Mississippi River between developers who are eying it for an amphitheater and those who want to use it for industrial purposes.

Parke McEnery of The McEnery Co., a New Orleans real estate company, told the Downtown Development District Tuesday that offers are due on the River Park property by Dec. 15, but that date could get stretched into 2021.

McEnery and Gordon McLeod have been marketing River Park with an eye toward building a venue for live music on the site. They shared renderings of how an amphitheater could look and said they’ve gotten “pretty responsive calls and e-mails."

“We’re pretty familiar with the market for outdoor amphitheaters in the Southeast,” McEnery said. “There are none in Louisiana and the closest one is in Brandon, Mississippi.”

In September, 19th Judicial District Court Judge Janice Clark ruled against River Park developer Pete Clements in a four-year-long battle first brought against him by First NBC Bank. Girod LoanCo took over the battle after the failure of First NBC. Clark ruled that Clements owed the lender more than $19 million in principal and interest payments, stemming from a 2008 loan he took out on the property.

Clements spent years and millions of dollars trying to develop the tract next to Hollywood Casino. At one point, he teamed up with the casino to build a railroad underpass to improve access to the land.

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Site in question:



Existing underpass near Hollywood Casino:


The site is 24 acres.

My vote is for something port or industry related, as that likely provides the most jobs. But an amphitheater would be a nice addition to Baton Rouge too. The plots immediately north of this are owned by the railroad. Immediately south is Hollywood Casino.