Downtown Issues Discussed

BOBBY ARDOIN

Editor/Consulting Writer

The reconstitution of the city’s downtown area dominated most of the discussion Friday morning during a regular monthly meeting of the Opelousas Downtown Development District.

ODD members didn’t vote on any of the agenda items germane to real estate located in the downtown business district.

However district members listened to several presentations that included code enforcement for the commercial downtown district and progress for several ongoing projects associated with revitalization.

Enforcing The Ordinance

Code Enforcement Director Lance Ned said he has begun tagging all downtown properties in order to notify property owners that registration for their buildings is required.

Downtown builders owners seem more reactive than proactive as the enforcement phase ultimately determines the condition of their buildings, Ned pointed out.

“It’s been more or less a one-man operation regarding the registration process, but I’m trying to work with everyone in order to get things done. People have been more negative than positive about it,” Ned added.

Ned said the registration process for the buildings is something that has been built-in to the downtown vacant building ordinance passed by the Opelousas Board of Aldermen in 2023.

Bordelon Building

A portion of the former Bordelon Motors building across from City Hall has apparently started to destabilize, Ned said.

Earlier this week the city blocked off a section of North Street with crime scene tape due to what Ned acknowledged was the collapse of an upper brick exterior.

The Board of Aldermen earlier this month granted an extension of at least one month for the Bordelon Motors owner to determine whether there has been a completion for a proposed sale.

Any projected sales for the Bordelon property was scheduled to be finalized by Oct. 31, Ned told the Board during the October meeting.

Downtown Hotel

Stephen Daste, a financial advisor who is helping with a refurbishing and potential sale of the former four-story Downtowner Hotel, told ODD members that a committee previously formed to negotiate further development of the city-owned building has applied for a Brownfield grant application to help with refurbishing funding.

Approval of the grant application, said Daste, should enable the committee to ave enough seed revenue to start rehabilitation perhaps as early as February, 2025.

Money obtained through the grant could enable the committee to begin building remediation, perform site inspections and testing, Daste said.

The Downtowner most recently served as a women’s shelter operated by the Diocese of Lafayette. It was donated to the city several years ago.

Abdalla’s Square

Two Opelousas-area realtors – Monica Deculus and Fred Credeur – said they represent individual property owners interested in selling the former St. Landry and Planters bank buildings located in the center of the downtown area.

Credeur noted that there is interest among individual and multiple investors for the former Abdalla’s Department Store building that faces Main Street as well as several attached buildings which dominate most of the city block.

Building Donations

Gretchen Erlingson, who represented Opelousas Main Street, reminded ODD members that Main Street recently acquired four vacant downtown buildings from the Haas-Hirsch Estate.

Erlingson said three of the buildings are located across from the St. Landry Parish Courthouse and face North Court Street, while another building on East Landry was once occupied by Bell Telephone.

Each of the four properties, Erlingson said, are capable of being placed back into commerce. Each property also qualifies for historic district tax credits.

Main Street representatives, added Erlingson, are willing to entertain any interest from developers seeking to refurbish the buildings which in some cases measure 3,250 square feet.

The Bell South building is probably in the most critical condition of the four that are owned now by Main Street, according to Erlingson.