Mary Tutwiler

Venture downtown for an unveiling of things to come

by Mary Tutwiler

Downtown partners Acadiana Center for the Arts, the Downtown Development Authority and Acadiana Outreach are teaming up for a Wednesday night , April 2, show-and-tell social dubbed Venture Downtown. According to DDA director Cathy Webre, the cocktail party is reaching out to members of the business, government, social services, arts and culture community of Lafayette to provide a master plan of all the sites under development in downtown. “We’ll be showing a panoply of projects,” Webre says.

Project number one is the site of the soirée, Acadiana Outreach’s new mixed-use development in a brick warehouse at 114 Oliver St., which is designed to become a community center, art studio and art gallery. “We’re providing a sneak peak of Lofts at Olivier,” says Valerie Keller, Acadiana Outreach's CEO. Other plans and projects on the agenda for mixed-use development are the Daily Advertiser building, which was purchased by Joe Noel last year; the old Bell South building on Buchanan, now owned by the Southwest Group; Parkview Towers on Jefferson Street, under development by Cecil Trahan; and a new educational facility under way as part of the First Baptist Church complex. Public projects include renovations to the main library building, completion of the Rosa Parks Transportation Center and the continuation of StreetScape.

To attend, park at IberiaBank, 200 West Congress St. A trolly will shuttle guests to the Outreach Center Campus. The event is from 6-9 p.m. While there is no ticket requirement to the event, Keller asks that those who would like to attend RSVP to [email protected].