Greater Baton Rouge Business Report: Down by the riverside: Remson-Haley's River Center District pla

Chris Remson is a big supporter of downtown's revitalization. But he knows most of the parish couldn't care less.

"Downtown, everyone is excited about downtown," he says. "But for the majority of Baton Rougeans, the area around the River Center is their only experience of downtown."

And that's not a good thing. Say you're driving in from the Shenandoah area. You'd take the interstate and come in on Government, park in the West Garage and walk to the River Center.

"You'd look around and say, 'What's all this talk about downtown redevelopment? I don't see anything different,'" Remson says. "Government Street is very unfriendly, and that's all the impression most people will get."

Remson--who is half of Remson-Haley Architects, along with his wife and business partner Trula Remson--has a plan to change that. All it will take is a little extra effort from the city and a whole lot of enlightened self-interest from the private sector.

The potential is there to see. Stand at the corner of Government Street and River Road and look around. The glassy facade of the revamped and expanded River Center soars. The Sheraton, the Argosy Casino and the USS Kidd are within a block's walk.

And there's something new for this corner of downtown: people. Wandering the sidewalks, in groups of eight or ten, most of them visitors or tourists.

What you won't see is anywhere for them to go. There are no restaurants, coffee shops or tourist stores.

So Remson-Haley proposes creating a three-block strip of retail along the westernmost blocks of Government. This "River Center District" would amount to 42,000 leasable square feet.

A few years ago, it would have seemed a very unlikely proposition. The street frontage was occupied by some vacant lots, a parking garage and some unused buildings. Then, the city made matters better and worse. It tightened the curve of Government to slow traffic and protect pedestrians. Yet it also allowed the River Center to be built with a featureless side elevation, creating a bleak block of dead space on Government.

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"We were not real thrilled with that side of the building," says Trula Remson. "That's a hard thing to overcome."

The city's next move will go a long way to determining whether the River Center District happens. Baton Rouge is planning to put up a huge parking garage, with 1,000 stalls, sometime in the next few years to serve the River Center.

The planning firm Glatting Jackson recommended two locations in February. One would cover the two blocks south of Government between St. Philip and St. Louis, across Government from the West Garage. That location would benefit Argosy and spur the would-be River Center District by forcing pedestrians to walk down Government on their way to the convention center.

The other option, a block northeast, would be more convenient for the new state district courthouse if it ends up at St. Louis and North Boulevard.

The city is deciding what to do, according to the mayor's spokesperson.

The potential of a new garage on Government got Chris Remson thinking. If it were built right to the street, "We'd ruin the potential of this entire area," he says. "It'd become a canyon."

Instead, Remson wants the new garage built 50 feet back from the street to allow a liner building with retail space, like at the new garages on Fourth and Main and on Third and Convention.

"That's what they should have done at the River Center, too," notes Trula Remson.

Beyond the liner building, the city's investment would amount to little more than streetscape improvements.

That is more or less what was envisioned in Plan Baton Rouge's 1998 master plan for downtown, though Downtown Development District director Davis Rhorer says Remson-Haley can take credit for all the specifics.

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"It'd be so easy to do," Chris Remson says. "All it needs is for the city to build something that they've already decided they needed."

Transforming the butt-end of Government into the River Center District, if it happens, will be a testament to the power of looking out for Number One. The Remsons say they have put about $12,000 into planning for the area, but freely admit their effort is partly aimed at drumming up retail demand for the bottom floor of the firm's future home, the former Coca-Cola Bottling building on Government and St. Philip. The architects bought it last fall in partnership with a law firm and are now renovating it.

"We don't want to lease the ground floor to another office use for our own short-term financial reasons," Remson says. "A better long-term use for the area would be retail."

Even if the city comes through with liner buildings and Remson-Haley rents to retail, that still only adds up to one block. Argosy owns everything else: the Sheraton, the former Catfish Town atrium and many of the surrounding buildings, including the historic Maritime 1 and 2 buildings that front Government between Remson-Haley's building and the river.

"The casino is key," Remson says. But given that Argosy already has restaurants, a nightclub and hopes of rejuvenating retail in the atrium, it might well have balked at helping the competition outside its doors.

To the contrary, Argosy government affairs director Gayle Carnahan says the casino is keen on the Remsons' idea.

"More is better," Carnahan says. "We don't see additional restaurants or retail as competing. More options simply bring more people to our end of downtown."

Carnahan says Argosy has had internal discussions about doing retail leases on the ground floors of Maritime 1 and 2.

Having more activity also boosts the casino itself. "Casinos across the country are having to offer more than just gaming," he says. "Retail, entertainment and opportunities for eating and drinking."

Carnahan adds, though, that Argosy will wait for the city to show its hand. Only if the city does a bang-up streetscape in front of the new garage and along Government would Argosy would consider paying to match that along its own frontage.

Chris Remson believes having a viable downtown is also in the city's self-interest. "If visitors come to the city and see a dead downtown, they won't come back," Chris Remson says. "They'll leave with an impression of a dead Baton Rouge."

HAL COHEN covers real estate and legal issues. Reach him at hcohen@businessreport.com.