Could State Office Building Move to Downtown Shreveport?

The State of Louisiana office building on Fairfield in Shreveport is in need of a major facelift. Every day, more problems with the building are discovered.

For several years there have been discussions about moving the state building to downtown Shreveport. This was a hot topic when the proposed Cross Bayou Plan was being pitched to city leaders. But that deal fell through.

Now, Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins met with State Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, state lawmakers, council members and other leaders to again hash out this proposal.

The state has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain the current building, but millions of dollars of work is still needed. Is it a good idea to pump millions into this aging building, or is it best to move out of the old building and find a better spot?

The state did solicit bids for renovations to the state building this summer, but both of the bids were rejected.

RRAC Contractors bid $4,850,000 and the ELA Group bid $5,092,500 to do the work. But the project was expected to cost about $2.7 million. For that reason, no contract was awarded.

The state did award a contract to Corporate Roofing and Industrial Contracting for $590,700 to put a new roof on the building.

There is some concern about leaving a shell of a building on Fairfield, but there has been some interest in the building from some of the big medical companies in town.

This is the beginning of this round of the discussions. We will follow this story to see if this could actually happen.