Ritter Maher plans move to Government Street

Published Sep 14, 2012 at 10:00 am (Updated Sep 14, 2012)

The vacant Darensbourg building on Government Street, across from the Westmoreland Shopping Center, will begin to be redeveloped into the new offices of Ritter Maher Architects in late October or early November.

Scott Ritter says the firm, which got its start nine years ago downtown, plans to house its offices in the second floor of the roughly 8,000-square-foot building and dedicate the ground floor to as yet undetermined arts uses. The firm has been located at 4880 Bluebonnet Blvd. for the past seven years.

"We're just big fans of Mid City. There's some really positive things going on in that area, and we're looking forward to being a part of it," says Ritter, a Baton Rouge native who lives in the area and graduated from nearby Catholic High—as did his business partner, Stephen Maher. "Initially we were looking at going back downtown. But as it happened, I ended up sitting across from Danny [McGlynn] on a flight back to Baton Rouge, and we started talking about the Darensbourg building, and now we're in the process of buying it."

Ritter Maher and McGlynn are jointly receiving New Market Tax Credits from the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority and others for both the Darensbourg building redevelopment and a larger, mixed-use development and artists community McGlynn and his business partner Dennis Hargroder are building next to the Circa 1857 complex they own just down Government Street. For a Daily Report article on the Circa 1857 project, click here.

Ritter says the redevelopment should take about six to eight months.

"Next year is our 10th anniversary, so we're hoping to have a big celebration at the new offices for that," he says.