Louisiana Attorneys- Baton Rouge Law Firm

In the News

Agency moving to Bon Carré
By TIMOTHY BOONE
Advocate staff writer
Jan 25, 2006

The Louisiana Office of Group Benefits is planning to move into the Bon Carré Business Center on Florida Boulevard, in a deal to make up for The Football Network, which recently left the center.

Jim Baronet, a spokesman for the state’s Division of Administration, said the move solves two problems: it fulfills a rental guarantee the state pledged on behalf of The Football Network and it gives OGB, the insurance administrator for state employees, the new office it needs.

“The Football Network was not able to make their rent on the space and the state had guaranteed Bon Carré a tenant,” Baronet said.
If an office had not moved in, Baronet said the state faced paying Bon Carré at least $3.2 million to make up for the defaulted 15-year TFN lease.

TFN came to Baton Rouge in May 2003 promising 200 jobs with an average salary of $50,000, a lineup of top-tier sports broadcasters and 24-hour-a-day football-related TV shows. The state invested $3.7 million upfront and later committed another $23 million in studio build-out, equipment and services.

But the network laid off workers and never came close to a full-time broadcast schedule. The equipment, valued at $2.9 million, went to Louisiana Public Broadcasting, which is storing and paying for sets and routers. “That’s how we were able to operate two studios for our hurricane coverage,” Beth Courtney, LPB president, said.

Stephen Babcock, a local attorney who represents TFN, confirmed that the station had left Baton Rouge, but said it remains in business. The station is going through arbitration with an investment bank, which was supposed to help the channel attract the investments it needed to go back on the air. “The contract between the two parties was vague,” he said.

Officials with Bon Carré said TFN hadn’t paid rent since late 2003, a gap of more than two years. The network had turned over the state tax credits it earned to its landlords.

Camm Morton, Bon Carré’s director, said the network moved out of the center around the start of the year. URS is occupying the 14,000 square feet that TFN had used.

“It’s like any tenant that doesn’t make it, it’s one of the chances you take,” Morton said. “But we did the deal as much as to make something for Baton Rouge.”

Morton said he didn’t know how much TFN’s failure was going to impact the businesses center’s finances.

“We would be better off if TFN had stayed in there, but the whole deal was structured so that if TFN didn’t work out, there would be a little pain all around,” he said.

OGB has been in its office in the Louisiana Department of Agriculture building at 5825 Florida Blvd. since 1989. The location is about a half-mile west of Bon Carré.

The layout does not allow for efficient operations, Baronet said. For example, files are stored in a separate warehouse and there is no backup in case of a power failure. The state estimates it would cost about $766,000 to fix up the old office.

Over the past few years, the state has worked to consolidate government office buildings downtown. But OGB is staying near its current location because it isn’t considered the type of “core” administrative agency that needs a downtown presence, Baronet said. In addition, the office needs open space and substantial parking (OGB has nearly 400 employees and more than 130,000 people are enrolled in its program), things that are in short supply in downtown Baton Rouge.

The move to Bon Carré will allow OGB to improve its service and possibly cut administrative costs, Baronet said. The rent will increase about 24 percent, from $970,000 to $1.2 million.

OGB and its 389 employees are set to move into the 83,000-square-foot office by June 14. The move will not lead to any additional hiring, Baronet said.

“We’re trying to make lemonade out of lemons,” Morton said. “It’s not the best outcome, but we really think this will be a good outcome, getting OGB in here.”