By james art Visit Baton Rouge is purchasing a vacant historic downtown building and transforming it into its new headquarters.
VBR signed a purchase agreement last month to buy the Lafayette Street building near the Hilton and Hotel Indigo. The building has been empty for decades and has no roof.
The state Bond Commission recently approved VBR’s request to seek a $7 million loan from the bank to purchase and renovate the building.
“We’ve outgrown our offices,” says VBR’s Laura Keating. “We feel a little disconnected in our current space. We don’t have a lot of co-working space or a lot of meeting rooms.”
VBR has occupied its nearly 7,000-square-foot space on 3rd Street for nearly 20 years. The new building is almost double the size.
The purchase will also help revitalize the historic space, Keating says.
“The building on Lafayette Street has been vacant for decades, so it’s an eyesore for our community in a high-traffic area,” Keating added. This allows us to breathe new life into another area of the city centre.”
“Several people looked at it. It has a lot of potential, but for some reason it’s never been revitalized,” says Downtown Development District Executive Director Whitney Hoffman Sayal.
Cating says the design phase and renovation will begin once the purchase closes. If all goes according to plan, the project will be completed in 2026.