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Message
re: Office RE Bust hits Baton Rouge: Owners default on One American Place Tower
Posted on 7/17/24 at 11:18 am to NYNolaguy1
Posted on 7/17/24 at 11:18 am to NYNolaguy1
quote:
The problem is and has been the lack of flexibility in zoning. There's a huge housing shortage and a glut of CRE available, why not let CRE have the flexibility to be turned into condos?
The issue is usually plumbing. Plumbing layouts for commercial office space is VERY different than for hotels or condos. That makes converting office space into condos extremely expensive. To change the plumbing layout that extensively requires demoing floors and moving a lot of walls. This sort of remodeling can disturb asbestos insulation, requiring even more expensive abatement.
As a result, it is often cheaper to build more apartment space elsewhere than to renovate a commercial office into residences. However, downtown BR has just finished doing just such a project with the Chase tower.
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Posted on 7/17/24 at 11:22 am to Krane
quote:
Kip was the only thing holding downtown together. Was a fun place to live from 2010-2018. Been on a spiral since SWB took over
Agreed. However, downtown is still very safe, which is a positive compared to much of the city. If a new mayor can get 3rd street happening again and maybe get a little retail going, downtown could bounce back better than it ever was pretty quickly. Downtown has hotels, convention space, a grocery store, restaurants, bars, is safe, and more people living there than at any time in the last 60 years. There’s tons of potential, but it requires the mayors office and permit office to have some vision.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:02 pm to whoa
quote:
The Chase tower has condos now I believe.
And a roof top pool and bar.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:13 pm to FizzyPop
Socialism much?
Let the market take care of itself.
If people wanted to office there, they would. Live there, they would.
That’s why it’s like it is. The market talks.
Let the market take care of itself.
If people wanted to office there, they would. Live there, they would.
That’s why it’s like it is. The market talks.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:17 pm to Old Hellen Yeller
quote:
I think the problem with many office buildings is that they are plumbed for what, 2 big central bathrooms per floor? It’s cost prohibitive to convert them to residential use, unless you’re doing one lux condo per floor.
There have been several conversions ftom office building to residential.
The old Fidelity Bank Building at Third and Main is now. Multi use building with a grocery, apartments and office space.
The old Commerce Building is now apartments with retail on the ground level.
The old Chase Tower has apartments and office space now and a branch bank.
Conversions aren’t cheap. Each apartment needs its own electrical service for metering purposes. Each apartment requires their own AC unit. The plumbing has to be completely reworked. Greasy waste provisions hzve to be made. Then there are a lot of different life safety considerations.
Then there’s the logistics to rebuild on upper floors. It’s not quite that smoke to stock upper floors with sheet rock, showers, cabinets, etc.
Then there’s demolition issues including asbestos etc.
It’s not cheap
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:19 pm to kingbob
quote:
Agreed. However, downtown is still very safe, which is a positive compared to much of the city. If a new mayor can get 3rd street happening again and maybe get a little retail going, downtown could bounce back better than it ever was pretty quickly. Downtown has hotels, convention space, a grocery store, restaurants, bars, is safe, and more people living there than at any time in the last 60 years. There’s tons of potential, but it requires the mayors office and permit office to have some vision.
If you do retail you have to do it as a bomb, as all 3 sides of downtown BR are hood/industrial so that makes downtown an island.
A retail store opening up downtown in March with a second one opening up an August isn’t going to do much good. It’s not worth driving and parking to do something that’s easier at 20 other locations in BR.
You’d have to open up 5-6 stores at once to make people consider going downtown for some casual shopping.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:24 pm to BRIllini07
Ideally, I would like to see one of the empty lots along the river or Catfish town become a shopping mall similar to Perkins Rowe with some sort of entertainment center as an anchor. Downtown being an island of walkable urbanism in a suburban sprawl city could be an advantage if leveraged properly.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:25 pm to Traffic Circle
quote:
Socialism much?
You think I'm socialist because I asked about tax credits for a historic district which is 100% a factual thing. Historical district tax credits have been around for decades. Bruh, get a clue.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:26 pm to doubleb
That Matherne’s has a very unusual feature due to being slotted into an old bank…
Their wine cellar is what used to be the bank vault.
Their wine cellar is what used to be the bank vault.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:27 pm to BigBinBR
Isn’t lake Charles tearing down their lone tower? Been there for a long time. Disgusting. Just filth. I think they are taking it down soon if they haven’t.
Now Baton Rouge joining the party with a bigger building.
How much more of this y’all want before y’all make changes? LOL
Now Baton Rouge joining the party with a bigger building.
How much more of this y’all want before y’all make changes? LOL
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:37 pm to jizzle6609
quote:
Now Baton Rouge joining the party with a bigger building.
How much more of this y’all want before y’all make changes?
This won't happen, the tearing down of it. A block away is the Chase Bank building which is even bigger than One American, and they changed over at least half of it into residential condos.
This post was edited on 7/17/24 at 12:39 pm
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:48 pm to FizzyPop
quote:
A block away is the Chase Bank building which is even bigger than One American,
Unless you're counting both towers as one, One American is bigger than the now Rivermark Centre. I made many trips up and down those elevators in college running for a law firm.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 12:56 pm to kingbob
quote:
downtown is still very safe,
Very safe? I wouldn't go that far. There aren't a ton of reported incidents in downtown. But I would opine that is because less and less people are frequenting downtown after dark as compared to its revitalization in the early/mid 2000's.
Today you literally can't walk more than 1 block without encountering some drug-riddled junkie. For the better part of a month (until the weather became too hot) there was a junkie whose wake-up time was around the same time I was driving into work. I knew that because I would see him 3-4 times a week stretching in nothing but his underwear after getting up from his pile of blankets. If you were lucky, you could see him hanging meat on North Blvd taking his morning leak.
At any given time there is a bum convention taking place right out front of our new multi-million dollar library with the "overflow room" being located in the "green space" across the street. On the way home from work just last week there was apparently some event for kids going on outside of the library. 20-30 feet away were anywhere from 10-15+ junkies slumped over chairs, laying on the ground, or just shooting up. I suspect most people who were at the event don't frequent downtown often and after that probably won't do so again.
As little as 10 years ago that wasn't the case. Now it's routine. That's not to say downtown couldn't be revitalized once more. But once the mayor who cared about doing so left office the current administration couldn't care any less about bringing it back.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 1:13 pm to FizzyPop
Historic tax credits for historic buildings, maybe.
One American Place is hardly historic and bailing it out with tax money won’t make people magically want to live there.
Another developer has invested millions in a similar building conversion without government aid.
If ‘getting a clue’ is handing out bailouts to projects like this, count me out. That’s why we are in a world of problems now.
The market speaks, just like the jungle, or the workplace. The lender, or developer, or somebody else might have to take it on the chin. But I’m not in favor of a bailout.
One American Place is hardly historic and bailing it out with tax money won’t make people magically want to live there.
Another developer has invested millions in a similar building conversion without government aid.
If ‘getting a clue’ is handing out bailouts to projects like this, count me out. That’s why we are in a world of problems now.
The market speaks, just like the jungle, or the workplace. The lender, or developer, or somebody else might have to take it on the chin. But I’m not in favor of a bailout.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 1:17 pm to facher08
quote:
Unless you're counting both towers as one,
Yes I'm counting both towers which was owned by Bank One then Chase. Like I said, half (one tower) was changed over to residential. Anything else, or do we need to parse every square foot as well to make you guys happy.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 1:18 pm to Traffic Circle
quote:
Historic tax credits for historic buildings, maybe.
Good, stop calling people socialists if you're gonna then agree merely one post later. Glad we got that settled so quickly.
Posted on 7/17/24 at 1:40 pm to goofball
quote:
It's 83% occupied which isn't great,
Honestly 83% is great compared to how most office buildings are faring in non major markets.
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