Developers Fine-Tuning $50M LEED Mixed Use

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BATON ROUGE, LA-A pair of developers is undertaking a Downtown redevelopment of hotel site with a storied past. The replacement product for the 262-room Prince Murat Hotel will be a $50-million, LEED-certified mid-rise with 400 apartments and 20,000 sf of retail.

Marc Blumberg of Atlanta-based Palmetto Partners Inc. and Manny Organek of Continental Realty Corp. in Boca Raton, FL are ready to advance their plan for a nine-acre site at the corner of Nicholson Drive and Oklahoma Street. It’s long been rumored that the hotel at 1480 Nicholson Dr. would be razed, but the four-year owners vow it will come down soon so construction can start on an as-yet unnamed, mixed-use project that will have Mississippi River views and direct access to the newly opened 2.5-mile hike and bike trail.

Blumberg tells GlobeSt.com that the development door has been opened by Go-Zone financing and New Market Tax Credits along with other federal housing incentives. That also means the JV is putting a plan into play that requires a long-term hold or an economic hit on a resale due to funding provisions. “We expect a long-term hold here,” Blumberg stresses.

The market-rate development will break ground by year’s end. Go-Zone funding requires commercial space to be completed in 2007 and residential by the end of 2008. Blumberg says the plan is to be completely done by yearend 2007.

According to Blumberg, the live-work-play project is the most expensive residential one in the CBD. It also could be the city’s first LEED project to deliver. “We hope to be the first,” Blumberg says.

The nine-building project will be one- and two-bedroom units, ranging from 700 sf to 1,100 sf. The projected average rent is $1.50 per sf. As for the 20,000 sf of retail, Blumberg’s still weighing whether it will be street retail or pad sites.

Like the JV’s 925 Common in New Orleans, the Prince Murat replacement product is being designed by Rozas-Ward Architects. Latter & Blum of New Orleans will lease and manage the residential component; Blumberg is the go-to man for retail deals.

Baton Rouge’s population has jumped since Hurricane Katrina leveled coast, with projections of 50,000 residents expected to stay put in the capital city. “We’re taking advantage of the displacement of people,” Blumberg explains about the decision to quickly advance the redevelopment. The Prince Murat river-fronting site is equidistant from the state capitol complex and Louisiana State University. “It’s perfect positioning,” he says.