Clean Fuel News

Metro Council greenlights Raising Cane’s River Center deal, Zipcar expansion

Major changes are about to take place in downtown Baton Rouge.

The Metro Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to approve a 10-year, $3.87 million deal for Raising Cane’s to buy the naming rights to the Baton Rouge River Center and rebrand the venue the Raising Cane’s River Center.

The council also OK’d Zipcar’s expansion to downtown. The car sharing company will lease four metered parking spaces within the Downtown Development District for a one-year pilot program with a one-year renewal option.

The council voted to amend the city-parish’s parking ordinance and approved the city’s agreement with Zipcar to clear the way for the pilot program.

The rebranding of the River Center and new the Zipcar program are two of the most recent changes to occur downtown, which has undergone a renaissance over the past decade. New businesses, restaurants, a grocery store, residences and hotels now fill the once sleepy part of the city.

For several days, River Center officials have hinted that a major announcement was on the way.

On Monday—just days after Daily Report first broke news of the pending deal between the city and Raising Cane’s—the River Center’s officials announced the installation of new digital monitors, expanded food options and a new website. The changes, they say, are designed to modernize the 40-year-old venue.

Mayor Kip Holden hosted a 10 a.m press conference this morning at the River Center to officially announce the rebranding of the entertainment venue, which was originally called the Centroplex.

On Wednesday, councilman Buddy Amoroso sought a two-week deferral on the vote for the deal with Raising Cane’s, citing concerns about the transparency of the process that brought about the deal and a need to get the public involved in the conversation. Unable to get a second for his motion, his effort to defer died.

Amoroso wanted to know how the deal ended up on the council’s agenda for a vote without first being introduced and why a request for proposals wasn’t issued.

Councilwoman Chauna Banks Daniel shared some of Amoroso’s sentiments, asking questions about the process for selecting Raising Cane’s and financial details of the deal. Councilwoman Donna Collins Lewis asked about how the revenue from the deal would be spent, adding that she would like to some of it go toward hiring teens for summer jobs at the River Center.

“We’ve been reaching out to businesses in excess of five years,” said William Daniel, Holden’s chief administrative officer. “We’ve talked to a number of people. This was the best deal that we could make. And it was a local company, homegrown in Baton Rouge.”

Daniel said the funding generated by the deal would go toward the city-parish’s River Center fund to be used for the entertainment venue’s needs. However, the council does have discretion to decide how the money in the fund is used, he added.   

River Center General Manager Michael Day told the council Raising Cane’s first payment will total $370,000. That amount will be paid each year through 2019, after which a 5% escalation clause kicks in for subsequent years of the deal.

Sam Voisin, regional vice president of SMG—which manages the River Center under a contract with the city-parish —said SMG contacted 39 companies about buying the naming rights to the River Center. Only six were interested in face-to-face meetings, and of those, only Raising Cane’s was willing to pay for the rights.

As for the Zipcar pilot program, the company said in a statement the official launch of the program will take place in the coming weeks.

“I see the Zipcar pilot program as another step toward making Baton Rouge a cleaner, green city,” Holden says in a statement. “This program allows us to test the vehicle share program at no cost to the city to determine if we can reduce our city-parish fleet. If we can achieve a cost savings for the public and at the same time decrease the number of cars on the road, this is a great step in the right direction.