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DOWN BY THE RIVER

Shreveport, La.’s restored Red River nurtures retail development

BY IAN RITTER

Northwest Louisiana’s Red River is starting to run black for the communities along its banks. The river is host to some riverboat casinos anchored in midstream and to emerging retail-entertainment development.

Not that this is the first time the Red River has shouldered the local economy. Two centuries ago it was a source of prosperity, conveying goods between the region’s towns and the Mississippi River, into which it flows. But the railroads took over that function in the early 1900s, while the river fell into disuse — and even became polluted.

The discovery of oil brought prosperity statewide for a while, but the oil-price bust in the mid-1980s drove the oil companies away. The resultant loss of personal incomes naturally hurt retail and real estate along with every other facet of the economy.

But now the Red River, which the federal government cleaned up a decade ago (today it supports fishing tournaments), has re-emerged as the area’s rescuer. The river buoys five riverboat casinos, and dams have made it navigable, leading to the construction of ports up and down its length.

“People are learning to enjoy the river,” said Pam Glorioso, Bossier City’s project coordinator.

There are major plans for the river’s banks, too. Los Angeles-based O&S Holdings is building Louisiana Boardwalk, a retail-entertainment complex, to serve Bossier City and the city of Shreveport, which sit on opposite sides of the river. The retail and restaurants will total 550,000 square feet.

This $150 million mixed-use project, which will sit on the Bossier City side, is unfolding in stages. A Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World opened last November; several outlet stores, including Dress Barn, OshKosh B’Gosh and Rue 21, according to the developer, will open in March. Among the restaurants will be Hooters and Joe’s Crab Shack.

A 60-slip marina opens next summer, and there are plans for two hotels and about 30,000 square feet of offices.

It’s not only the 15 million casino visitors annually that O&S is looking to attract, though they are certainly a bonus. The center’s retail and recreational space is intended to fill a void for the 350,000-plus residents of Bossier City and Shreveport.

“What we saw there was a need to fill a niche,” said Gary M. Safady, the managing member of O&S. The outlet stores in particular will be welcome, he says, noting that at present the nearest existing ones are in Dallas, about 190 miles west.

“Too often outlet centers are on the fringe of a metropolitan statistical area,” he said. “And we’re in the middle of a metropolitan statistical area.”

Louisiana Boardwalk is one of several projects with which O&S is occupied at the moment. In Huntsville, Ala., the firm plans to build Bridge Street, a $250 million mixed-used development comprising 450,000 square feet of retail, as many square feet again of office space and up to 500 apartments and condos. O&S hopes to break ground by the end of the year and complete Bridge Street by mid-2006. In Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., it is opening Foothill Crossing, a power center.

Local consumers will be the most important revenue source at Louisiana Boardwalk, says William H. McFadden, SCSM, SCMD, a leasing associate in the Shreveport office of Stirling Properties, a Covington, La.-based real estate services firm that is not involved in the project.

“A large percentage of the casino patrons are from East Texas, and it’s going to be a challenge to present anything they don’t [already] have at home,” McFadden said. “It will need to draw from the locals — and I think it will.”

The locals certainly have the incomes to support the project, say McFadden and Glorioso, noting that the area’s economic outlook is considerably brighter than it was 10 years ago, thanks partly to the casinos. Average household income in the area has risen from just over $25,000 a year in 1990 to about $46,000 a year today.

And Louisiana Boardwalk will help in yet another way: Unlike Shreveport, Bossier City has no significant downtown, so the project will fulfill this function, officials say. “I’ve called it the new living room for Bossier City,” said Glorioso.

The project is designed to look like a city center, says Lance Brown, president of Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Enter-Arc, the development’s architect. “In our mind’s eye, we’re trying to design a city.”

Following a 1930s classical architectural style, the project will sport 180 contrasting facades to give the impression of a town that has evolved over time. A trolley will run down the main street.

If all that sounds very convivial, there was one conflict. Until earlier this year, O&S was calling the development Louisiana Riverwalk, but The Rouse Co. sued, claiming that its Riverwalk Marketplace, in New Orleans, gave it exclusive rights to the name. The issue was settled out of court.

That’s all water under the bridge now, of course. Everyone’s attention has been refocused on the banks of the Red River, which is once again a source of prosperity for the local community.