WBR Chamber announces new business ideas for west side – WAFB

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – West Baton Rouge Chamber is working on a ten-year for what they would like to see in the parish, some folks say they want more things to do.

Damon Vlahos has lived in Port Allen for at least 35 years, he loves the small town, but says it would be nice if things were closer by.

“If you want something nice, you have to travel. We have to cross the bridge if you want a nice sit-down restaurant. Brusly, I mean they have a couple but not a whole lot, a lot of your fast foods are still over there,” explains Vlahos.

Vlahos is not the only one who has thought about it. Leaders with the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce believe getting more businesses could help their economic growth.

“A lot of our parish officials and a lot of our residents were like, ‘hey, we want some nightlight life around here.’ We have a few bars to hang out at, but you know where are the nice restaurants that we can get dressed up and go sit down at. I mean we have seen so much growth year over year, that people are asking us to implement more programs, have more educational opportunities, or more events that they can get more awareness from,” says Anna Johnson who is the executive director of the WBR Chamber of Commerce.

However, one concern for some who live in Port Allen is that too much growth could take away from their close-knit community.

“I think generally, all of us can be afraid of change at some point until you see the end result and then you become accustomed to it or you welcome it,” says Port Allen Council Member Garry Hubble.

Hubble says it’s all about the location of a new business and how big they are.

“I would say any big box store, I think that’s great, I think that’s something that needs to be further out in the parish, that type of thing, but within the radius of where we can get to it,” adds Hubble.

Port Allen council members are talking with a local business owner tonight about setting up a microbrewery in his establishment.

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2022 WAFB. All rights reserved.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/8HyT27S
via IFTTT