The Advocate
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber has applied for a permit to remodel its downtown office building and expand it by nearly 2,000 square feet.
BRAC applied for the permit Wednesday, which lists a renovation to its 10,044 square feet of offices at 564 Laurel St.
Officials declined to comment further about the permit. Adam Knapp, BRAC president and chief executive officer, said he would have more to share about the work “pretty soon.”
In April 2016, BRAC put the property up for sale with an asking price of $1.25 million. At the time Knapp said that was the first step in getting a new headquarters. The building is no longer listed as being for sale.
Getting a new office building has been a BRAC goal for years. At one point around 2006, the chamber and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation talked about constructing a mixed-use office building at the old Advocate site, which is now home to IBM. Later, there were discussions about BRAF moving to the old Capital One building downtown and BRAC would take over its space. The Capital One building eventually was sold and redeveloped as the mixed-use 440 on Third building. BRAF moved into the IBM building and sold its former offices to Level Construction and Development in September 2016.
The BRAC building was completed in 1955 and renovated in 1985.