Leslie Turk

Johnston Street Smart: Reed Andrus' compromise plan

by Leslie Turk

After decades of wishful thinking and years of serious debate that followed the introduction of the Johnston Street Redevelopment Initiative, a viable compromise is emerging to achieve critical aesthetic and functional improvements on the city’s main commercial corridor.

It comes from the private sector, and details are available on a Web site that went live March 24. It’s a solution that appears to work because it delivers most of the aesthetic improvements the community would like to see with minimal disruption of business. Its author, commercial real estate developer Reed Andrus, says it could be completed in as little as five years and perhaps cost one-third the original plan. City-Parish President Joey Durel says he’s seen it and is poised to endorse it.

Read Cherry Fisher May's commentary on Andrus' compromise plan in this month's Acadiana Business, on newsstands today.