BATON ROUGE — The one-time head of the parish tourism agency is coming back to Baton Rouge to help steer the redevelopment of the Raising Cane’s River Center.
Mayor-President Sid Edwards has asked the Metro Council to approve changes to the River Center management, including handing the reins of the venue to Visit Baton Rouge until a developer is found to pursue the city-parish goal of an attractive event space and connected hotel that could lure large conferences to the city.
Edwards has asked the Metro Council to also approve a contract with consultant Butch Spyridon to oversee those redevelopment efforts.
Spyridon was executive director of the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau – now called Visit Baton Rouge – until he moved in 1991 to head the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp.
He spent 32 years there before retiring in 2023. He has worked as a consultant for Visit Baton Rouge since his retirement.
Both contracts are scheduled for potential Metro Council consideration at the council’s Aug. 26 meeting.
At a news conference Monday, Edwards re-introduced Spyridon and explained why he is the right man for the job.
He cited Spyridon’s efforts in the branding of Nashville as “Music City” and its establishment of the kind of convention center and hotel combo that he wants to see here.
“He helped build Music City into one of the best in the world,” Edwards said.
Edwards said these are the kinds of changes where his background as a football coach assist him. He doesn’t need to be able to throw the ball himself. He needs to find people who can and put them in the right spot in the field.
“Brother, he can deliver,” Edwards said.
Spyridon said he wants to “help this city to achieve its own vision.”
“I like seizing an opportunity. I like making challenges come true,” he said.
Edwards has proposed a two-year contract for Spyridon, who would be paid $250,000 the first year and $275,000 the second year.
He has also proposed a contract starting in January that would make Visit Baton Rouge the interim manager of the River Center when the current manager’s contract expires.
Kidder said having Visit Baton Rouge managing the River Center is a natural extension of the work the agency has been doing for decades to establish Baton Rouge as a contender for national conferences.
The River Center is the “catalyst” for the next phase of development in Baton Rouge, she said.
And Kidder pledged to keep River Center management trustworthy, calling it a “single point of accountability” for the venue’s oversight.
Metro Council member Carolyn Coleman, whose district includes the River Center, said the changes “will bring energy, visitors and national attention to our region.”
“We need people strolling downtown with a po-boy in one hand and a hotel key in the other,” she said.
Coleman compared the plan for a new LSU area to the plan for changes at the River Center to two pearls in a strand.
“They are connected. They must be connected,” she said.
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