The Baton Rouge Area Foundation announced Monday that it will move to a new location late this summer.
BRAF has outgrown its current office space at 100 North Street and will move just blocks away to the Rivermark Centre at the corner of Florida and 4th Streets. The organization will lease the lower level of the 330,000 square-foot Rivermark I building, which was renovated by Wampold Companies and completed in November 2023.
A build-out of the new roughly 17,000 square-foot office is set to begin in April, with BRAF leaders anticipating an August move-in date.
The new space will include: larger meeting spaces for community gatherings and nonprofit activities; collaboration space and meeting rooms for smaller gatherings; as well as ample room for the organization’s staff, which has grown by 30% in the past two years.
“BRAF’s growth over the past few years has been intentional and aligned with our strategic plan, allowing us to expand our capacity to serve the community and advance access to opportunity in Baton Rouge,” says Brenna Benson Lamb, BRAF’s COO. “Transitioning to a new office will provide our talented staff with the space they need to work effectively and foster impactful collaboration.”
Chris Meyer, CEO and president of BRAF, said in a prepared statement that the move is occurring at the same time as work for Plan Baton Rouge III, the downtown region’s next master plan, begins in earnest.
“This move to invest in expanded space is part of the momentum of Plan Baton Rouge III and will enable us to more effectively serve the nonprofit sector and community partners by unlocking multi-purpose event space that does not exist in our current office,” Meyer said.
BRAF has moved a handful of times over the last two decades. In 2015, the organization sold its former downtown headquarters at 402 N. Fourth St.—a three-story, 19,376-square foot office building constructed for it in 2007—and moved into the top floor of the IBM building.
