GET DAILY REPORT FREE
The Metro Council has approved Hunden Partners, a leading global adviser for destination real estate development projects, to serve as the city-parish’s adviser on the Baton Rouge Convention Center expansion and headquarters hotel development project.
The approval, which came at Wednesday night’s Metro Council meeting, authorizes the parish attorney and project special counsel to negotiate a contract with Hunden to lead a nationwide search for a developer for this critical economic development project.
Hunden was the top choice of the project’s oversight committee, chaired by District 10 Metro Council member Carolyn Coleman, to partner with the city-parish as its owner’s adviser. Developer recruitment will begin immediately upon the council’s final approval of the contract.
The developer selection process could take up to 24 months to complete.
“An expanded, first-class downtown convention center and a new, high-end headquarters hotel will transform the downtown riverfront into the vibrant tourist destination and hub for locals we have always known it can and should be,” said Visit Baton Rouge President and CEO Jill Kidder, who serves as vice-chair of the project’s oversight committee.
Hunden is also advising LSU on the development of its arena, per media reports.
With the LSU arena project also advancing, the project oversight committee has emphasized the importance of a complementary approach to the downtown development. The River Center complex will continue to host midsize performances and participatory sporting events, while the arena at LSU will host large-scale entertainment and LSU sporting events.
Hunden has experience guiding similarly multifaceted projects to completion. Since its inception in 2006, the Chicago-based firm has conducted more than 1,000 studies and has been involved in the development of over $20 billion in built or planned assets worldwide, including comparable projects in Fort Worth, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Cincinnati, Chicago and Indianapolis.
The firm previously developed a regional entertainment venues assessment for the Capital Region, benchmarking Baton Rouge against other midsize markets and college towns.
The 11-member oversight committee considered five RFP respondents before recommending Hunden to the council, which voted on May 28 to invite the company to make a presentation and hear public comment at Wednesday night’s meeting.
“Hunden has experience throughout the U.S. and in what we want here in Baton Rouge,” Coleman says. “You want the group that’s knowledgeable about what we expect. When we’re talking about this River Center, think about the other entities, all of the other things that are going on in Baton Rouge. Everything should connect. We’re looking for a bigger, greater Baton Rouge for everybody to enjoy.”
Read more about the project here.
