Leaders in Baton Rouge, La., are pushing a $1 billion plan to develop a major entertainment destination, which will include a new arena for Louisiana State University.
The plan would also include the arena, a remodeled River Center and a new hotel.
During a Monday meeting on the mater, Jill Kidder, CEO of Visit Baton Rouge, said 40 percent of concert goers in the metro area travel more than five times a year to go to shows that do not come to Baton Rouge.
“When you build a place where people want to visit, you build a place where people want to live, work, and invest,” Kidder said, according to WAFB. “Think of a place where you visited and said, ‘wow this is a great, thriving place.’ That is what we are trying to build in Baton Rouge.”
The projects are expected to rely entirely on outside investment rather than taxpayer money.
“We have rich assets that we can develop, but we are missing two key ingredients, and that’s a major arena and a mid-sized venue, and working together with the community, we can deliver that without the burden on the taxpayer,” said Chris Meyer, president of Baton Rouge Area Foundation.
Some local residents are concerned that the way maps are drawn for the new district would cut them out, meaning a new tax levied within the district would not be approved by voters. The East Baton Rouge Metro Council approved a 1% sales tax and a 1% hotel occupancy tax effective Oct. 1.
"Voters have the chance to vote on the EDD when they decide to go to a concert, and they don’t have to put gas in their car and drive to another city or fly to see the act they always dreamed of seeing, that right now, flies over us," Meyers said. "They get to vote when they pay for an extra one cent on a Coke. I think that’s a win if they choose to do it. If they don’t, then that’s fine.”
Oak View Group is currently in line to lead the development project, but that contract has not been finalize.
