Decade in Review: 1990s

Law firm Stone Pigman of New Orleans expands to Baton Rouge and lures five attorneys away from Phelps Dunbar.

By the end of the first week in January,

Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery

reaches 50% of normal operations following a Christmas Eve explosion that claimed the lives of two men.

1990

Louisiana Nature Conservatory moves toward acquiring and preserving 80 acres of the Bluebonnet Swamp, with the help of Vulcan Chemicals and Exxon Company USA.

The Economides family breaks ground on the 4,400-squarefoot Zorba’s Greek Place at the corner of Perkins Road and Bluebonnet Boulevard.

TJ Ribs

considers opening a Las Vegas franchise.

Within an eight-day span, six MMR Holding Corp. executives leave the company, including CEO James “Pepper” Rutland, CFO Samuel Weems and COO Robert Bening, as it moves closer to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Rutland—a 2022 Baton Rouge Business Hall of Fame inductee—will regroup and ultimately rebuild MMR into a global force among industrial contractors. • Mike Wampold’s plans for a $15 million, 336-unit luxury apartment complex off Stanford Avenue adjacent to

One Lakeshore Place are delayed after the Planning and Zoning Commission refuses to rezone part of the property.

• Livingston Parish is one of about 10 sites being considered by an

MIT-Caltech partnership hoping to land a proposed $60 million research project known as LIGO, short for laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory.

• The East Baton Rouge Parish Parks and

Recreation Commission enters into an agreement to buy Santa Maria Golf

Club for $1.8 million.

East Baton Rouge Parish begins its

pilot recycling

program, collecting bins containing recyclable materials from residents in more than a dozen subdivisions. While the majority of Baton Rouge struggles to maintain the status quo thanks to a depressed 1980s economy,

southeast Baton

Rouge undergoes a metamorphosis as the population more or less doubles and drives commercial construction in the area.

Developer Charlie Cole proposes a 300-acre, 750-home high-end development lining the layout of Santa Maria Golf Course.

Students in the LSU School of Medicine’s residency program begin rotations at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center in November, marking the city’s first medical teaching program based at a community hospital rather than a public medical center.

1991

After more than 80 years, The State-Times shutters, leaving Baton Rouge with just one daily newspaper—The Morning Advocate. The first double

drive-thru restaurant in McDonald’s worldwide chain opens on Airline Highway near

Cortana Mall as a prototype, featuring a limited menu, two walk-up windows, and outdoor seating for 30.

25

Number of businessmen from the Mexican state of Veracruz who visited Baton Rouge months before the nation’s free trade agreement with Mexico was finalized

Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry

opens its first store outside of Louisiana, in Mobile, Alabama.

South Central Cell and Southern Bell merge into BellSouth Communications Inc. Suspended Insurance Commissioner

Doug Green receives a 25-year sentence

for mail fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court.

$25.6 million

Cost of U.S. Postal Service’s mail processing center planned for Bluebonnet Boulevard

3,700

Phone calls logged in the first month of the Morning Advocate’s “Talk to Me” 900-number, an electronic classified personal ad service

1992

Third Street, in downtown, reclaims its name after being called Riverside Mall since the ‘70s.

After 72 years, Griffon’s Drug Store closes its location at South 19th and Government streets. Christel Slaughter becomes the first woman to chair the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce after Bill Little resigns as president and CEO. As part of his reelection campaign, President

George H.W. Bush

gives a speech at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, the first time a sitting president visited Baton Rouge since William Howard Taft in 1910.

State officials mull a

proposal to set production

limits on natural gas in an effort to help independent producers battle depressed natural gas prices. Members of the

Country Club of

Louisiana finalize a deal to purchase the development from Chuck McCoy, reimbursing him some $12 million that he spent to buy the community in March.

Stanley K. Tanger

signs purchase agreements for a 46-acre tract in Gonzales, where he plans to build a factory outlet mall.

The Goudchaux’s department store chain is sold by the Sternberg family.

1993

1994

• BRAF forms a new division, Forum 35, to attract young professionals 35 and younger to community service projects.

• 100 Black Men launches a Baton

Rouge chapter, led by Brace Godfrey, to address problems in the Black community.

100

Years of LSU Tiger football in Baton Rouge Plans are finalized for a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Sam’s Wholesale Warehouse Club to anchor the new Marketplace Siegen Lane development. Jim Bailey donates a 200-acre site on River Road to the Tiger Athletic Foundation for a proposed championshiplevel golf course. This development, along with the extension of Bluebonnet Boulevard, will trigger an explosion of residential and commercial development in the area.

Copeland’s of New Orleans announces it will soon open Copeland’s Cajun-American Cafe on Essen Lane as a prototype for future franchise expansion.

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown places Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana in conservation, taking control of the nonprofit insurer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approves the $2.3 billion merger between Gulf States utilities Co. and Entergy Corp.

The Centroplex is hit by scandal after two employees plead guilty to felony charges and its executive director is indicted on charges of malfeasance in office, felony theft and more.

After months of negotiation, Executive Hotel Management closes on its purchase of the Sheraton Baton Rouge off College Drive from Aetna Life Insurance and changes the property’s affiliation to Radisson. The property would later change hands and be rebranded to the Crowne Plaza.

The Louisiana State Police Riverboat Gaming Division awards its two remaining licenses to Jazz Enterprises and Louisiana Casino Cruises, with each planning to open riverboat casinos in downtown Baton Rouge. The Belle of Baton Rouge docks at its new home, a downtown dock with a connecting pier to Catfish Town.

Fifty-year-old

Buddy Roemer,

Louisiana governor from 1988 to 1992, announces he will run again for governor in 1995. In September, former Mayor Pat Screen is found dead in a French Quarter hotel room. • Exxon Corp. joins several fast-food companies to open restaurant outlets in its gas stations, joining a national trend.

• Capstone Development

Corp. announces plans to spend $6.2 million developing a 132-unit student housing complex at 4600 Burbank Drive,

the first new housing development in the area in roughly a

decade.

Woman’s Hospital celebrates the ribboncutting of its largest expansion yet— Physicians Tower I on Florida Boulevard.

The luxury apartment market expands, with The Park on Bluebonnet Boulevard breaking ground on some 300 units near Perkins Road and The Gates at CitiPlace starting on its 369 units on Corporate Boulevard. Alabama-based Jim Wilson and Associates Inc. unveils plans for the Mall of Louisiana, with an anticipated 1997 opening date. The $200 million project would break ground in late 1996 and open in 1999.

Modernage Inc. buys nearly 6 acres in CitiPlace with plans to develop three restaurants—On

the Border Cafe, Grady’s American Grill and Romano’s Macaroni Grill. Community Coffee

announces its first Baton Rouge location for its CC’s Gourmet Coffee House, in the Highland Village Shopping Center outside the LSU South Gates.

Local retailer Jerry Pearson announces plans to build a 17,000-squarefoot commercial shopping center on Jefferson Highway to house his store and travel agency, along with other tenants.

LSU sells out its first home football game in 12 years as the Tigers square off against Auburn on the way to the school’s first winning season since 1988.

1995

Two months following its opening, Marble

Slab Creamery

takes the local market by storm. The company’s first Baton Rouge location at George O’Neal and Jones Creek roads is one of several Louisiana franchise outlets for the growing chain.

20

Years celebrated by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry

The Powell Group forms a new company, Powell Broadcasting Inc., and begins negotiating to buy several radio stations in Iowa. The move was not unexpected; earlier in the year, the company had hired former WBRZ-TV news director John Spain.

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1996

With a skit involving horses, Jim Wilson & Associates breaks ground on the $200 million Mall

of Louisiana.

Barnes and Noble is among the new tenants to open at

CitiPlace on Corporate

Boulevard, Tommy Spinosa’s new mixed-use development.

Gov.-elect Mike Foster appoints 24-yearold Bobby Jindal to head the embattled Department of Health and Hospitals, calling Jindal a genius and saying he has “never felt more comfortable” about an appointment. The former Catfish Town announces a combination brewpub/sports bar and rooftop grill as one of two new tenants at Argosy Gaming Co.’s development under construction. The development would eventually become the atrium of The Belle of Baton Rouge.

The owners of Mansurs

on the Boulevard

announce plans to open the French Market Bistro on Highland Road. BREADA holds its first farmers market on North Boulevard.

52,000

Square footage of Academy Sports and Outdoors on Airline Highway, which took the place of Jack’s Grill II, formerly The Village

Banc One Louisiana Corp. renames Premier Bank as Bank One Louisiana. The company would later be acquired by JP Morgan Chase and the name would change again.

Lamar Advertising goes public with an initial public offering in 1996 that raises $75.8 million.

1997

Baton Rouge welcomes its newest sports team—the Bombers—who play in the Eastern Indoor Soccer League.

$480,000

Salary of LSU football coach Gerry DiNardo The Metro Council unanimously votes to remove candy machines from public areas of city-parish buildings, fearing someone would slip on dropped candy and sue.

48

Bus shelters installed by Lamar Advertising Co. under a contract with Capital Transportation Corp.

House Bill 1162 is signed into law, transferring the entire $753 million Charity Hospital System with nine hospitals from the Louisiana Health Care Authority to the LSU Board of Supervisors.

Maxco Properties, comprising 17 heirs to 200 acres in north Baton Rouge, announces plans to develop Howell Place.

Construction begins on Baton Rouge Community College’s $11.5 million, 51,800-square-foot facility.

168

Number of employees at Schwegmann Giant Supermarkets’ two Baton Rouge locations, who lost their jobs when the New Orleans-based company shuttered its Capital Region stores to focus on its core market in the Crescent City Rebuilding begins on the kitchen and two offices at Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant on Lee Drive after a fire in September.

New urbanism guru Andres Duany leads Baton Rouge through a yearlong series of design charrettes that will result in Plan Baton Rouge, a master plan for downtown that will guide the development of more than $500 million in public investment and over $1.5 billion from the public sector.

2

Number of bowl victories for Baton Rouge’s college football teams, as LSU beats Notre Dame in the Independence Bowl and Southern defeats South Carolina State in the Heritage Bowl

Yet another major real estate development comes to Baton Rouge in the form of Mallard Lake. “But with room for just 43 homes and prices starting at $220,000 this place won’t be for everyone.” Baton Rouge’s new

Business Report begins a countdown to

the millennium bug.

225

area code goes into effect on Aug. 17. 1998

United Companies’ stock plummets from a high of $27 a share to nearly $0.

A beer imported from Singapore with purple and gold marketing and a trademark Lion bristles the feathers of LSU officials who say it too closely resembles the school’s branding.

Baton Rouge’s newest high-profile resident, Master P, prepares to launch a multimillion-dollar recording studio in town.

Florida Boulevard Land Co., a group that includes local developer Jimmy C. Thompson, inks an agreement to buy the languishing Bon Marché mall for an undisclosed sum, with plans to redevelop the mall into uses other than retail.

Bob Dean’s Lyceum Dean, an events hall on Third Street, holds its grand opening.

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Developer Mike Wampold announces plans to expand City Plaza with a second, 12-story building. Construction on the 260,000-square-foot structure is delayed for several years, but it eventually opens in 2009.

Starbucks Coffee Co. announces its expansion into Baton Rouge with a store planned for Corporate Boulevard.

150,000

Number of attendees at Bonne Fête, a free, threeday festival to Issue Date: Sept 2022 Ad proof #3 celebrate Baton Rouge’s 300 • Please respond by e-mail or fax with your approval or minor revisions. • AD WILL RUN AS IS unless approval or final revisions are received within 24 hours years from receipt of this proof. A shorter timeframe will apply for tight deadlines. • Additional revisions must be requested and may be subject to production fees. Carefully check this ad for: CORRECT ADDRESS • CORRECT PHONE NUMBER • ANY TYPOS This ad design © Louisiana Business, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved. Phone 225-928-1700 • Fax 225-926-1329 Chef John Folse makes headlines unveiling the new location for his flagship restaurant, Lafitte’s, after its old home burned to the ground.

Argosy Gaming Co. begins construction on a $20 million, 300-room hotel next to its casino boat and land-side development.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT TURNING 50

1999

Hilton announces plans to develop

a 129-room Hilton Garden Inn on Harding Boulevard in

Howell Place.

Lamar Advertising undertakes a massive $1.9 billion cash-andstock deal to buy the billboards of AMFM Inc. To satisfy U.S. Department of Justice antitrust concerns, Lamar sells $30 million in billboards in 31 areas.

Mark Emmert takes over as LSU chancellor.

YMCA announces it will “return to its roots” with a downtown facility in the Louisiana state parking garage under construction.

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