Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Certified Sites Program

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) designed a regional strategic sites inventory program to dramatically accelerate the number of development ready sites positioned to compete for and win economic development driver projects. The goal of the program is to develop and maintain a deep inventory of sites positioned for economic development projects throughout the 9-parish BRAC region.

CSRS is the program team lead for identifying and qualifying sites for entry into the program and managing the complete site certification process. Once sites meeting the suitability criteria are identified and cataloged , we employ desktop analysis techniques to assess the development potential and any fatal flaws for the site. The desktop analysis provides critical high-level information such as base flood elevation analysis, land use and zoning analysis, wetlands, and environmental analysis to determine if the site has fatal flaws. Sites passing the desktop fatal flaw analysis are pushed further along through the detailed due diligence phase and full certification phase.

To date, over 80 sites have been identified and screened with 25 sites having the detailed due diligence completed or in progress. Over 20 sites have gone through the full detailed due diligence process and completed certification.