The Baton Rouge Area Chamber in partnership with the Downtown Development District has begun recruiting businesses to fill empty downtown storefronts.
Joshua Combs, BRAC’s business development manager for East Baton Rouge Parish, says he is compiling an inventory of available real estate and considering what sorts of businesses could be appropriate for those spaces. The DDD is funding the effort.
Combs says the chamber is focusing on locally owned businesses first and hopes to have some agreements in place by early next year.
Also discussed at today’s DDD meeting:
- Commissioners approved requesting an $865,620 budget for 2024 that would be virtually unchanged from this year, plus a budget supplement of $200,000 to replace tree wells, repair signs and make streetscape improvements on Third Street. The Metro Council would have to approve the proposals.
- Downtown will participate in the global annual Park(ing) Day on Sept. 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., says Landon Hester with the Center for Planning Excellence. Curbside parking spaces along North Fifth Street between Main Street and North Boulevard (where the Red Stick Farmers Market sets up on Saturdays) will be converted into miniature parks and social spaces.
- Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office urged the meeting’s attendees to visit the new Louisiana Heritage Monument on the state Capitol grounds, which honors the service of African-American veterans, including formerly enslaved soldiers who fought in the Siege at Port Hudson.
- Town Square Pizza is expected to open next week. It will be open for lunch Monday through Thursday and evenings on Fridays and Saturdays and for downtown events.
- The downtown location of the YMCA has undergone an extensive renovation and will soon begin operating 24 hours a day.