On May 20, 21, and 22nd, the City of Alexandria will host four public workshops on the future of Bolton Avenue and North MacArthur Drive, two flagship SPARC projects that are expected to break ground within the next eleven months. All four meetings will be held at the Bolton Avenue Community Center. A complete schedule can be found by clicking here.

World-renowned architect Frederic Schwartz will be leading the North MacArthur enhancement and safety project, along with his colleagues Professor Mark Schimmenti of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Carlton Brown, a Harlem, NY/Jackson, MS–based developer with Full Spectrum NY.

Nationally-recognized landscape architect Jeffrey Carbo, FASLA will be leading the Bolton Avenue Corridor Enhancement project along with MESA Design Group, an international landscape architecture firm based in Dallas, TX.

Mr. Schwartz, who has offices in New York and New Orleans, has completed major projects throughout the world and is currently designing four airports for the Government of India and working on major housing initiatives for Ghana. He has been featured in The New York Times over a dozen times, has appeared on PBS’s Charlie Rose show, and is the author of two acclaimed books.

Mr. Carbo, a graduate of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at LSU, is the founder of Jeffrey Carbo Landscape Architects, a thirteen-person firm in Alexandria, LA. He was elected to the ASLA Council of Fellows in 2005, was selected as LSU’s College of Art and Design Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient in 2007, and has been a featured speaker at numerous national and regional conferences.  Mr. Carbo’s work has been featured in numerous publications including Landscape Architecture Magazine, International New Landscape, Green Source, House and Garden, Better Homes and Gardens, Garden Design, Southern Living and Southern Accents and has received over 30 design awards on the state and national level, including national recognition for work done along the Cane River in Natchitoches, LA as well as the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, TX. The firm is currently working on commissions throughout Louisiana and the southeast United States.

Mr. Schimmenti, an associate of Frederic Schwartz Architects for nearly thirty years, has also completed projects all over the American Southeast. He is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism and the author of The Plan of Nashville: Avenues to a Great City, a book that serves as the adopted master plan for the City of Nashville.

Mr. Brown is a well-regarded developer, housing expert, and sustainability advocate. His firm Full Spectrum NY, a minority-owned business based in Harlem and Jackson, MS, has conducted over half a billion dollars in development projects during the last few years. Currently, Mr. Brown is the driving force behind the largest redevelopment project in the history of Jackson, Mississippi, the Old Capital Green project (with Frederic Schwartz Architects). Mr. Brown is an appointed member of the United States Green Building Council and has been featured on Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet.

Interviews will be made available upon request.
Media Contact: Ken Juneau (318)-715-0802

Later this week, the public will have the opportunity to assist a team of world-renowned professionals in designing two major infrastructure projects on North MacArthur Drive and Bolton Avenue. Both projects seek to transform these corridors by enhancing streetscapes, improving vehicular and pedestrian safety, and expanding opportunities for private-sector development. “This is not a master planning project,” said Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy. “This is an infrastructure construction and public safety project.”

According to the Federal Department of Transportation, for every $1 million invested in public infrastructure, there is a long-term return of $6.2 million. The short-term benefit to the local economy, according to the Chief Economist at Moody’s, is typically $2 for every $1 spent on infrastructure. Additionally, the projects will immediately create several direct and indirect jobs, including approximately 100 construction jobs.

“Investing in infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to ensure we’re receiving a return,” said Mayor Roy. “Without a doubt, both North MacArthur Drive and Bolton Avenue have serious infrastructure deficiencies that need to be corrected. If we fail to properly address these deficiencies, we are only prolonging problems of blight and disinvestment, problems that burden all of us in Alexandria. Infrastructure spending is almost always appropriate, but more so in downward economic times.”

North MacArthur Drive:

According to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, North MacArthur Drive has an abnormally high accident rate and is one of the most dangerous roadways in the region. Interviews with business owners, hotel managers, and other property owners suggest that the safety of North MacArthur Drive is a critical concern.

Improving the safety, the functionality, and the aesthetic of North MacArthur Drive is of regional importance. Nearly one-third of the region’s hotel rooms and two of Alexandria’s three convention centers are located on North MacArthur Drive. “It’s sometimes easy to overlook, especially for those of us who live here, but North MacArthur Drive is Alexandria’s front door,” Mayor Roy said. “It’s where most of our guests stay overnight; it’s where most of our conventions and conferences are held; and it’s a primary gateway into the city.” Roy credits local economic development expert, Rhonda Reap-Curiel, with this corridor. Roy further noted the North MacArthur corridor was the actual progenitor of the SPARC Initiative.

During the last three decades, North MacArthur Drive has experienced significant changes, most notably, the replacement of large traffic circle at the intersection of Bolton Avenue and the construction of Interstate 49. Both of these projects, along with the expansion and growth that occurred along Highway 28 West, have created challenges for development. Today, a number of properties along North MacArthur Drive are vacant, blighted, and in disrepair, another reason why the City’s SPARC Initiative identified the need for intervention and infrastructure investment.

SPARC assigned and the Alexandria City Council budgeted $5 million for this infrastructure project, nearly 90% of which will be used for construction. During the next four months, a team led by architect Frederic Schwartz will extensively survey and analyze the project area, including but not limited to traffic studies, access management, traffic light synchronization, street lighting, drainage, traffic patterns, and accident “hot spots.” Mr. Schwartz and members of his team will also continue to conduct interviews with key stakeholders, business and property owners, and area residents, in an effort to ensure that the construction project is informed by and best reflects the needs of those most affected.

In addition to improving safety, Mr. Schwartz will also provide plans and construction documents for beautification and streetscape enhancement.

The North MacArthur Drive project is expected to break ground within the next eleven months.

Bolton Avenue:

For more than a decade, the need for intervention on Bolton Avenue has been established, including in the 1999 Alexandria Urban Master Plan and the 2003 McElroy Plan, both of which were adopted by the Alexandria City Council.

More than three decades ago, Bolton Avenue was Alexandria’s primary commercial hub, home to numerous retail stores, professional offices, and an exceptional art deco movie theater. It bisected a thriving, middle-class neighborhood in the center of Alexandria. However, with the opening of the Alexandria Mall in the early 1970s, Bolton Avenue lost many of its anchor stores, and ever since, it has been unable to attract any significant commercial development. These conditions were exacerbated by the construction of Interstate 49, which dramatically reduced the area’s connectivity with Downtown and isolated an entire neighborhood.

Today, Bolton Avenue is plagued by blight, disrepair, and crime. Because of Bolton Avenue’s central location and its importance as a transportation corridor, these problems are highly-visible. “Bolton Avenue is at the heart of Alexandria,” said Mayor Roy. “It is a state highway, and its problems not only affect the quality of life of those who live nearby; it affects us regionally.”

In order to address these issues, SPARC assigned and the Alexandria City Council budgeted $2.5 million for the Bolton Avenue infrastructure project, nearly 90% of which will be used for construction. The project will be led by Jeffrey Carbo, an award-winning landscape architect who grew up less than a mile away from Bolton Avenue.

Throughout the next four months, Mr. Carbo and his team will work with key stakeholders, business and property owners, and area residents in order to design a series of infrastructure improvements along Bolton Avenue. These improvements will not only aim to enhance and beautify the streetscape; they will also aim to improve safety.

“Bolton Avenue is a unique challenge,” Mayor Roy said. “We can’t simply plant a few trees or brick a couple of intersections and expect anything to change. Every decision we make on Bolton Avenue needs to begin with the question, ‘Will this make the neighborhood a safer place to call home?’ We talk a lot about smart growth, but we need to also begin investing in safe growth. My office issued an Executive Order, in 2009, with this corridor and District 1’s problems in mind.”

Since the 1970s, municipalities and law enforcement agencies have used Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) techniques to reduce crime by making targeted infrastructure investments in the built environment.

“Once Bolton Avenue is restored and once it becomes safer and more inviting, I think people will realize that it really is a great street with some beautiful, historic buildings,” said Mayor Roy. “With the right investments in infrastructure, Bolton Avenue has a lot of potential. We can no longer afford to wait. If we ignore these problems, they will only get worse, and they will cost us dearly in the future.”

Media Contact: Ken Juneau (318)-715-0802

The Hodges Stockyard Commercial Redevelopment RFP was released on April 13, 2010, and questions regarding the RFP were due to the City of Alexandria Mayor’s Office of Economic Development by April 30. The questions received, with corresponding answers from the City, are as follows:

Q: Will I be paying for streets, drainage, walking parks, lights, etc.? Will my utilities be brought to ground level and “stubbed” off?

A: The value and the level of SPARC infrastructure incentives are directly related to the value and the economic impact of the private development. The more private dollars invested, the more SPARC can contribute.

As the private developer, you should quantify and qualify your expected total investment and provide these estimates to the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, preferably in your response to the Request for Qualifications.

Notably, the infrastructure incentives the City would be willing to contribute toward a major grocery store and lifestyle center are likely far greater than the incentives the City could provide for a small, stand-alone retail store.

The purpose of this RFP is to attract major, catalytic commercial development in an area that is currently significantly under-served. Incentives are also tied to the business type and meeting public, quality of life needs and demands. Some uses, such as pawn shops, liquor stores, and savings retail outlets, do not qualify for any incentives because similar businesses already exist within the service area, and these businesses do not meet quality of life demands.

For the right project, the City would be willing to provide for the construction and development of infrastructure, including streets, drainage, sidewalks, lights, and utility connections that would otherwise be paid for by a private developer and subsequently donated to the City for up-keep and maintenance. In order to determine if your project qualifies, the City would first need to know the value and the scale of the proposal. No project can ever exceed a public contribution for project-specific public infrastructure outside of a 4.5:1 ratio of private to public dollars.  The greater the private contribution, the greater the potential public scale.  This will be further negotiated with winning teams, who are responsible for minimizing public contribution, not maximizing it.

The City will not provide a standard infrastructure build out because this would chill competition and the diversity of project ideas.

Q: Concerning the joint public safety complex, is there a written agreement between the COA and the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office?

A: The City has an ongoing Intergovernmental Agreement with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Department, and both agencies share resources frequently. With respect to a “written agreement” concerning the substation, both the Sheriff and the Mayor have publicly and repeatedly endorsed and supported this project. The City and the RPSO will coordinate with the private developer(s) to ensure the size and the location of the substation best complements and serves the project.

Q: Who will the construction contract be awarded to, the developer or by public bid letting?

A: Both Louisiana State law and the Alexandria City Charter require the construction of public infrastructure conform to public bid law. Purely private construction would not require public bidding; however, the City encourages the solicitation of competitive pricing quotes for private construction.

Q: Section 2.4 references “the proposed public safety/community policing initiative.” We believe this to be the anchor for any businesses to locate at this site. Please give a detailed description of the planned course of action for this facility.

A: Once the City successfully locates a private-sector developer(s), it will work directly with the developer(s) to create a site plan. This site plan will inform the City and the RPSO on the most appropriate location for the substation. Once the private-sector developer(s) secures financing, the City and the RPSO will immediately proceed with design; construction of this facility is expected to be concomitant with private-sector development.

Q: Please give examples of the kind of studies the COA can provide.

A: Market studies, feasibility studies, master site planning, public input reports, and appraisals.

Q: What consists of marketing?

A: The City is prohibited from marketing a private-sector business. However, the City can, and indeed already has, raise the public’s awareness of this particular project.

Other resources related to the project were requested. Please note that the site plans for the commercial section of the development are conceptual and preliminary, and do not represent a commitment or requirement of the City of Alexandria (click on the following images to download .pdf files).

Commercial Site Plan A

Commercial Site Plan B

Commercial Site Plan C

Overall Site Plat

The 8.071 acre parcel, less the area encompassing the oak trees, is reserved for commercial development. The 5.852 acre parcel will be a residential development. Site plans related to the residential development are available upon request.